Northside Capital Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Northside Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 64.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,686 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 8,446 shares during the period. Northside Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $282,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Financial Life Planners acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. South Plains Financial Inc. boosted its position in Williams Companies by 289.7% in the 2nd quarter. South Plains Financial Inc. now owns 608 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora boosted its position in 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 worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price 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. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Tudor Pickering upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $76.50.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total value of $757,115.37. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,290,699.30. This trade represents a 36.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.24, for a total value of $150,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 291,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,906,803.16. The trade was a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 51,369 shares of company stock worth $3,769,012 in the last ninety days. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Williams Companies Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of WMB stock opened at $72.44 on Friday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $51.58 and a 1-year high of $76.87. The company has a market cap of $88.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.85, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $63.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.90% and a return on equity of 17.32%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 98.13%.

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.