Jennison Associates LLC Sells 1,346,668 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Key Points

• Jennison Associates LLC cut its stake in Williams by 38.3%, selling 1,346,668 shares in Q4 and now holds 2,166,100 shares (about 0.18% of the company) valued at roughly $130.2 million.
• Several other large institutions materially increased positions—Brookfield (+190.3%), Wellington, SG Americas, Dimensional and Ameriprise among them—leaving institutional ownership at 86.44%.
• Wall Street sentiment is broadly bullish: the consensus rating is Buy with an average target of $78.60, and multiple upgrades including Morgan Stanley raising its target to $90.

Jennison Associates LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 38.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,166,100 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 1,346,668 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC owned about 0.18% of Williams Companies worth $130,204,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% during the second quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $755,490,000 after buying an additional 7,884,730 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $3,077,942,000 after buying an additional 6,668,950 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 4,992.2% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $222,692,000 after buying an additional 3,631,986 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 30.4% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,073,602 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $574,856,000 after buying an additional 2,116,526 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 27.4% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,753,924 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $491,225,000 after buying an additional 1,668,706 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, March 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $84.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Four equities research 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's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $78.60.

Williams Companies Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $75.42 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $73.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.79. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.82 and a 1 year high of $76.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.48.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.90% and a return on equity of 17.32%. The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

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 given 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, June 12th. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 98.13%.

Insider Activity

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Payvand Fazel sold 2,898 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.15, for a total value of $211,988.70. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 31,766 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,323,682.90. The trade was a 8.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total transaction of $757,115.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,290,699.30. This represents a 36.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 53,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,912,512 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

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.

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