Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Buys New Stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. bought a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 15,876 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,180,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pinnacle Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at $5,460,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter worth $3,138,000. Nitor Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter worth $577,000. Twin Tree Management LP acquired a new position in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,109,000. Finally, Haverford Trust Co acquired a new position in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at about $217,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $85.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total value of $973,310.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 268,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,077,064.33. This represents a 4.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold a total of 17,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,262,930 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $71.02 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $73.37 and a 200 day moving average of $73.20. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $56.08 and a 1 year high of $80.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.59.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. The business had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 25.17%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.46 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th will be given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 83.67%.

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.