Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Sells 2,635 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC lowered its position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 319,854 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 2,635 shares during the quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $20,090,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the first quarter worth $335,419,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 45.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,339,078 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $677,623,000 after acquiring an additional 3,519,370 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 34.0% in the first quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 11,287,921 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $674,566,000 after acquiring an additional 2,861,988 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 275.7% in the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 2,609,318 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $155,933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,914,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Williams Companies by 6.0% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 29,624,104 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,770,336,000 after acquiring an additional 1,680,477 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Cibc World Mkts raised Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Scotiabank increased their target price on Williams Companies from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group increased their target price on Williams Companies from $74.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. CIBC upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $64.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.73.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $58.88 on Friday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $51.46 and a one year high of $65.55. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.80 billion, a PE ratio of 29.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.48.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.03). Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.63% and a return on equity of 16.23%. The business had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 12th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.50%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.47, for a total transaction of $263,115.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 77,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,537,973.64. This trade represents a 5.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.62, for a total transaction of $115,240.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 311,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,956,984.90. This represents a 0.64% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,500 shares of company stock valued at $497,715 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

About Williams Companies

The Williams Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company primarily in the United States. It operates through Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West, and Gas & NGL Marketing Services segments. The Transmission & Gulf of Mexico segment comprises natural gas pipelines; Transco, Northwest pipeline, MountainWest, and related natural gas storage facilities; and natural gas gathering and processing, and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.