Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Position Increased by Russell Investments Group Ltd.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 14.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,338,690 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 166,782 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $84,848,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 1.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,358,462,000 after buying an additional 1,912,156 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 27.3% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $905,583,000 after acquiring an additional 3,089,390 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the second quarter worth about $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after acquiring an additional 7,884,730 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,056,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $631,632,000 after acquiring an additional 903,457 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.24, for a total value of $150,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 291,159 shares in the company, valued at $21,906,803.16. This represents a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total value of $757,115.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,290,699.30. This trade represents a 36.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,107 shares of company stock worth $3,009,215. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on WMB. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Scotiabank raised Williams Companies from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $66.00 to $84.00 in a report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.86.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

WMB stock opened at $73.13 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $62.59. The company has a market capitalization of $89.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.17, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $51.58 and a fifty-two week high of $76.87.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.90% and a return on equity of 17.32%. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 93.46%.

Williams Companies Profile

Williams Companies, Inc (NYSE: WMB) is a U.S.-based energy infrastructure company focused on the midstream segment of the natural gas value chain. The company develops, owns and operates assets that gather, process, transport and store natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs). Its operations support the movement of gas from production areas to end users including utilities, power generators, industrial customers and export facilities.

Williams’s product and service offering includes interstate and intrastate pipeline transmission, gas-gathering systems, processing facilities that remove impurities and separate NGLs, storage services and fractionation and transportation of NGL products.