HighTower Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 1.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,639,071 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 31,710 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC owned 0.13% of Williams Companies worth $121,849,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $8,052,537,000 after acquiring an additional 883,245 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $4,086,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,296,991 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $2,768,298,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100,164 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $2,018,017,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,851 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,281,875,000 after purchasing an additional 3,748,126 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $85.33.

Williams Companies Stock Up 2.7%

WMB stock opened at $75.04 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $91.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $73.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.43. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $55.82 and a 12 month high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.50. Williams Companies had a net margin of 25.17% and a return on equity of 18.49%. The business had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.46 earnings per share. The business's 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. Sell-side analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Williams Companies's payout ratio is presently 83.67%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.65, for a total transaction of $141,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 281,159 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,863,883.35. This trade represents a 0.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.47% of the stock is 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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