Clark Capital Management Group Inc. Boosts Stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 86.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,958,754 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 908,349 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $117,741,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,052,537,000 after purchasing an additional 883,245 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,086,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,296,991 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,018,017,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,851 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,281,875,000 after purchasing an additional 3,748,126 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on WMB shares. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, March 27th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $82.40.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of Williams Companies 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 directly owned 54,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,227,993.15. The trade was a 4.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total transaction of $3,768,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,815,254.79. This trade represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,835 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $71.36 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $73.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.08. The company has a market cap of $87.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $55.82 and a 52 week high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 92.11%.

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.