Sterling Capital Management LLC Boosts Stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 1,110.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 100,107 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 91,840 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $7,286,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,052,537,000 after purchasing an additional 883,245 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,086,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,296,991 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Williams Companies by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,768,298,000 after buying an additional 2,100,164 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,018,017,000 after buying an additional 3,314,851 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $78.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.82 and a 1 year high of $80.07. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $73.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.78. The stock has a market cap of $95.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.21, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.58.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted 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. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 92.11%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on WMB shares. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have given 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 price target of $82.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total value of $195,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 54,101 shares in the company, valued at $4,227,993.15. This trade represents a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.35, for a total transaction of $152,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 287,159 shares in the company, valued at $21,924,589.65. This represents a 0.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,177,835 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.