23,863 Shares in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Acquired by Cercano Management LLC

Cercano Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 23,863 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,434,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,052,537,000 after acquiring an additional 883,245 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Williams Companies by 1.1% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,575,898 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $923,383,000 after purchasing an additional 158,077 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $747,749,000. Finally, BROOKFIELD Corp ON lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 190.3% during the second quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Scotiabank increased their price target 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. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.40.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Payvand Fazel sold 2,898 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.15, for a total transaction of $211,988.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 31,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,323,682.90. This represents a 8.36% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total transaction of $195,375.00. Following the transaction, 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 have sold a total of 78,762 shares of company stock valued at $5,937,632 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.8%

NYSE:WMB opened at $70.10 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $85.63 billion, a PE ratio of 30.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.58. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.82 and a 52-week high of $80.07. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $73.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $68.15. 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 (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The business’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.46 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Investors of record on Friday, June 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 92.11%.

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.