Ardsley Advisory Partners LP Has $3.01 Million Stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Key Points

• Ardsley Advisory Partners cut its stake in Williams Companies by 33.3% in the fourth quarter, selling 25,000 shares and leaving it with 50,000 shares valued at about $3.01 million.
• Williams Companies reported Q1 earnings of $0.73 per share, beating estimates, though revenue of $3.03 billion came in below expectations. The company also guided FY 2026 EPS to 2.20-2.38.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, equal to an annualized yield of about 2.9%. Meanwhile, analysts remain broadly positive, with a consensus rating of Buy and a target price of $82.40.

Ardsley Advisory Partners LP decreased its position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 33.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 50,000 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 25,000 shares during the quarter. Ardsley Advisory Partners LP's holdings in Williams Companies were worth $3,006,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $8,052,537,000 after buying an additional 883,245 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $4,086,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,296,991 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $3,077,942,000 after acquiring an additional 6,668,950 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $2,768,298,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100,164 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $2,018,017,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,851 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.3%

NYSE:WMB opened at $71.26 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.05 billion, a PE ratio of 31.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.58. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $73.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.16. 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $55.82 and a fifty-two week high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 92.11%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on WMB shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Williams Companies from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $82.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Williams Companies from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, April 5th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Williams Companies from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $82.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.35, for a total transaction of $152,700.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 287,159 shares in the company, valued at $21,924,589.65. This represents a 0.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total value of $195,375.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 54,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,227,993.15. This represents a 4.42% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,177,835. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.

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