Sapient Capital LLC Increases Stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Sapient Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 68.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 23,443 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 9,502 shares during the quarter. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,743,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Aletheian Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Aletheian Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,830 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $285,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 26.2% during the 2nd quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 4,893 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $364,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the last quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 88.6% during the second quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 858 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gradient Investments LLC increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 25.0% in the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 9,459 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $703,000 after buying an additional 1,890 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on WMB. Wall Street Zen cut Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday. Barclays increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Williams Companies from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $83.88.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $4,227,993.15. This represents a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.65, for a total value of $141,300.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 281,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,863,883.35. This represents a 0.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 18,500 shares of company stock valued at $1,402,755. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $71.70 on Tuesday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $55.82 and a one year high of $80.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.57, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.48.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 25.17%.The business’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.46 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 83.67%.

Williams Companies Company 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.