Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB is M.D. Sass LLC’s 2nd Largest Position

M.D. Sass LLC lowered its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 12.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,173,920 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 165,714 shares during the quarter. Williams Companies makes up about 6.5% of M.D. Sass LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. M.D. Sass LLC owned approximately 0.10% of Williams Companies worth $85,438,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WMB. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $361,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 15,309 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $920,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 12,646 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $760,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Great Diamond Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Great Diamond Partners LLC now owns 34,870 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,096,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Corp increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 4,220 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $307,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.16, for a total transaction of $148,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 283,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,999,071.44. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total value of $195,375.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 54,101 shares in the company, valued at $4,227,993.15. The trade was a 4.42% 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 $5,182,655 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Citigroup increased their target price on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.56.

Williams Companies Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $75.25 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $74.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $71.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.83. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.82 and a 1-year high of $80.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.57.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 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.