Klingman & Associates LLC Acquires New Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Klingman & Associates LLC acquired a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 3,484 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, September 19th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $66.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.73.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $62.32 on Wednesday. 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, Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.46 and a 1 year high of $65.55. The company has a market capitalization of $75.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $60.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.25.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.49 by ($0.03). Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.23% and a net margin of 21.63%.The company had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.43 earnings per share. The company’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. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 12th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 100.50%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

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

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.