National Pension Service Grows Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

National Pension Service grew its position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,306,019 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 89,010 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $245,769,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WMB. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 40.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $740,000 after acquiring an additional 3,969 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $291,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 2.1% during the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 568,928 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $35,734,000 after purchasing an additional 11,926 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3.0% during the second quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 10,248 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $644,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 160.1% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 165,035 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,366,000 after purchasing an additional 101,574 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently 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 Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $20,077,064.33. The trade was a 4.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 19,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,414,050. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Williams Companies

Here are the key news stories impacting Williams Companies this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage with a Buy rating and an $85 price target, implying meaningful upside from recent trading levels. Scotiabank also maintained a Sector Outperform rating, although it modestly reduced its target to $85 from $86. Analyst coverage reports
• Positive Sentiment: Growing LNG, natural gas liquids and crude oil export demand is driving a broader wave of midstream mergers and infrastructure investment. This industry backdrop could benefit Williams’ extensive natural gas pipeline and gathering network. Export and power demand drive midstream M&A
• Positive Sentiment: An analysis of Williams’ competitive position highlights the company’s role in serving the Northeast, where rising gas demand and constrained infrastructure may support long-term growth. The Williams Companies: A Tough Competitor Tackles the Northeast
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusually heavy put-option activity—17,029 contracts, roughly 54% above typical volume—signals increased hedging or bearish speculation, but options activity alone does not confirm a fundamental change in the business.
• Negative Sentiment: A court ruling reversed a key water permit for the NESE pipeline, creating another regulatory obstacle and potentially delaying or increasing the cost of the project. The setback is particularly important because NESE is intended to expand gas delivery capacity into the Northeast. Williams’ NESE Pipeline Faces New Challenge From Court Ruling
• Negative Sentiment: Williams priced a $2.75 billion, four-tranche senior-notes offering. The financing can support capital needs, but it also increases debt and future interest expense for a company that already carries substantial leverage. Williams Prices $2.75 Billion of Senior Notes

Williams Companies Trading Down 3.0%

WMB stock opened at $72.93 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $89.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.05, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $73.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.56. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $56.19 and a 52 week high of $80.07.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on WMB shares. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Wall Street Zen lowered Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Barclays lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped 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, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Three research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $85.67.

Williams Companies Company Profile

Williams Companies, Inc is an energy infrastructure company focused primarily on gathering, processing, transporting and storing natural gas and natural gas liquids. The company provides the infrastructure and related services that connect natural gas supplies with utilities, power generators, industrial customers, liquefied natural gas facilities and other markets.

Williams operates a large network of interstate and regional natural gas pipelines, gathering systems, processing facilities and storage assets across the United States.