D.A. Davidson & CO. Lowers Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

D.A. Davidson & CO. reduced its position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 0.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 95,832 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 306 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $6,019,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 40.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $740,000 after acquiring an additional 3,969 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 8.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 37,458 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,238,000 after acquiring an additional 3,058 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 140,973 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,425,000 after acquiring an additional 15,960 shares during the last quarter. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies in the 1st quarter worth approximately $230,000. Finally, Golden State Equity Partners raised its stake in Williams Companies by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 12,735 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $761,000 after buying an additional 697 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 4th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, September 19th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $66.00 price target for the company. Argus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $66.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. CIBC upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $64.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.62, for a total transaction of $115,240.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 311,645 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,956,984.90. The trade was a 0.64% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 4,500 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.47, for a total transaction of $263,115.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 77,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,537,973.64. This trade represents a 5.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,500 shares of company stock worth $497,715. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Williams Companies Trading Down 5.3%

Shares of WMB stock opened at $58.88 on Friday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.46 and a 1 year high of $65.55. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $60.26 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The company has a market cap of $71.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.59, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.65.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.03). Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.63% and a return on equity of 16.23%. The firm had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 12th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 100.50%.

Williams Companies Company Profile

The Williams Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company primarily in the United States. It operates through Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West, and Gas & NGL Marketing Services segments. The Transmission & Gulf of Mexico segment comprises natural gas pipelines; Transco, Northwest pipeline, MountainWest, and related natural gas storage facilities; and natural gas gathering and processing, and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.