Sen. Unloads Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)

Senator (Republican-Oklahoma) recently sold shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB). In a filing disclosed on July 21st, the Senator disclosed that they had sold between $5,000,001 and $25,000,000 in Williams Companies stock on June 24th.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.6%

NYSE:WMB opened at $74.50 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $74.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $71.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $91.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.57. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $55.82 and a one year high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The company had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 92.11%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total value of $3,768,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 196,567 shares in the company, valued at $14,815,254.79. This trade represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 54,101 shares in the company, valued at $4,227,993.15. This represents a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,182,655. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on WMB shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. TD Cowen raised their price target on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Williams Companies from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Four research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $83.56.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 buying an additional 883,245 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,086,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,296,991 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 4.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,100,164 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,018,017,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,851 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,281,875,000 after purchasing an additional 3,748,126 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Senator

Williams Companies Company 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.