Heartland Bank & Trust Co Acquires Shares of 12,153 Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Heartland Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 12,153 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $903,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 3,969 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 5.5% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 2.1% in 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 buying an additional 11,926 shares during the period. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC grew 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 valued at $644,000 after buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC raised its position in Williams Companies by 160.1% during the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 165,035 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,366,000 after buying an additional 101,574 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total value of $973,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 268,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,077,064.33. The trade was a 4.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 17,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,262,930. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Williams Companies News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its price target for Williams Companies to $103, signaling substantial potential upside from recent trading levels and providing a constructive counterpoint to the earnings estimate cuts. Morgan Stanley Increases Williams Companies Price Target to $103
• Neutral Sentiment: The company’s latest reported quarter was solid: Williams earned $0.50 per share, matching consensus, while revenue of $3.05 billion exceeded expectations and increased 9.8% year over year. Its fee-based pipeline operations provide relatively stable cash flows.
• Negative Sentiment: US Capital Advisors lowered its EPS forecasts across several periods, including fourth-quarter 2026 EPS to $0.57 from $0.60, first-quarter 2027 EPS to $0.55 from $0.59, second-quarter 2027 EPS to $0.40 from $0.48, and third-quarter 2027 EPS to $0.50 from $0.55.
• Negative Sentiment: The firm also reduced its full-year 2027 EPS estimate to $2.07 from $2.28 and its 2028 forecast to $2.67 from $2.86. These revisions suggest analysts see weaker near- to medium-term earnings growth than previously expected and are likely the main reason the stock has decreased.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Three equities 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 MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $85.60.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $70.71 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.13. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $56.08 and a 52 week high of $80.07. The stock has a market cap of $86.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.48.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 25.17% and a return on equity of 18.49%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.46 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 3.0%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 83.67%.

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.