Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Purchases Shares of 4,695,435 Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 4,695,435 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $354,184,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned about 0.38% of Williams Companies at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,969 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Williams Companies by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $291,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 568,928 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $35,734,000 after purchasing an additional 11,926 shares in the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 10,248 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC raised its position in Williams Companies by 160.1% in the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 165,035 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,366,000 after purchasing an additional 101,574 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $85.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.65, for a total value of $141,300.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 281,159 shares in the company, valued at $19,863,883.35. This represents a 0.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $75.04 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The stock has a market cap of $91.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.58. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $55.82 and a 12-month high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.50. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 25.17%.The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.46 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 83.67%.

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.