Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) COO Sells $917,760.00 in Stock

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) COO Larry Larsen sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.48, for a total transaction of $917,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 98,219 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,511,789.12. This represents a 10.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.5%

WMB traded down $0.43 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $77.26. 2,010,032 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,884,929. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $73.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $66.65. The company has a market cap of $94.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.89, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.61. Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $55.82 and a fifty-two week high of $78.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The business’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Investors of record on Friday, June 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 92.11%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 28.3% in the 1st quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA now owns 38,290 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,787,000 after buying an additional 8,457 shares during the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 12.0% in the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 47,160 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,432,000 after buying an additional 5,050 shares during the last quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 10.0% in the 1st quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 5,162 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $376,000 after buying an additional 468 shares during the last quarter. Bollard Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 10.1% in the 1st quarter. Bollard Group LLC now owns 61,869 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,503,000 after buying an additional 5,652 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Compound Planning Inc. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 12.4% in the 1st quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 20,529 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,494,000 after buying an additional 2,259 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WMB. Wolfe Research raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $80.47.

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.