Hsbc Holdings PLC Purchases 272,250 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 11.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,611,216 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 272,250 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $194,429,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Campbell Newman Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 14.3% during the second quarter. Campbell Newman Asset Management Inc. now owns 654,720 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $48,672,000 after acquiring an additional 81,777 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 43.4% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 33,097,208 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,460,446,000 after purchasing an additional 10,013,946 shares in the last quarter. Archer Investment Corp bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $64,000. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $8,033,000. Finally, Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $16,425,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total value of $973,310.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 268,159 shares in the company, valued at $20,077,064.33. This trade represents a 4.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 19,000 shares of company stock worth $1,414,050. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on WMB shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Williams Companies from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Scotiabank upped 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 note on Tuesday, May 12th. 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. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $85.60.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB opened at $74.17 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $73.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.59. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $56.08 and a 52-week high of $80.07.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 83.67%.

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.