Legal & General Group Plc Raises Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,977,801 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 228,927 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $599,766,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. BROOKFIELD Corp ON boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in the second quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after buying an additional 7,884,730 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,077,942,000 after buying an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in Williams Companies by 4,992.2% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $222,692,000 after purchasing an additional 3,631,986 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Williams Companies by 30.4% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,073,602 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $574,856,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Williams Companies by 27.4% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,753,924 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $491,225,000 after purchasing an additional 1,668,706 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total transaction of $195,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 54,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,227,993.15. This represents a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.35, for a total transaction of $152,700.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 287,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,924,589.65. The trade was a 0.69% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 90,869 shares of company stock valued at $6,845,227. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $78.41 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.66. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $55.82 and a 12 month high of $80.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.39, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 92.11%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on WMB shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, March 27th. UBS Group increased their price target on Williams Companies from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Citigroup increased their price target on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Williams Companies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 5th. Finally, Truist Financial started coverage on Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price target on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.00.

About Williams Companies

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.