Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Shares Sold by Strs Ohio

Strs Ohio reduced its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 3.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 275,987 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 11,114 shares during the quarter. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $16,590,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Towne Trust Company N.A boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 60.2% in the 4th quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 431 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the period. Salomon & Ludwin LLC acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. Financial Life Planners acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 71.2% in the 3rd quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora now owns 630 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 262 shares during the period. Finally, Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 3rd quarter valued at about $46,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on WMB. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, March 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.60.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Todd J. Rinke sold 7,364 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total value of $547,807.96. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 26,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,938,231.45. This represents a 22.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 transaction of $757,115.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,290,699.30. This 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 90 days, insiders sold 51,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,779,732. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Williams Companies Price Performance

NYSE WMB opened at $75.69 on Monday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $55.82 and a 52 week high of $76.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The stock has a market cap of $92.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $73.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $65.91.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted 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). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.42 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.13%.

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.