Legal & General Group Plc Raises Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc increased its Williams Companies stake by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, ending with nearly 10.0 million shares valued at about $599.8 million. Institutional ownership remains very high, with hedge funds and other institutions holding 86.44% of the stock.
• Williams Companies reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings of $0.73 per share, topping estimates by $0.10, though revenue came in below forecasts at $3.03 billion. The company also issued FY 2026 EPS guidance of 2.20 to 2.38.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, equal to $2.10 annually and a 2.7% yield. Meanwhile, analysts remain mostly positive, with a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $81.00.

Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,977,801 shares of the pipeline company's stock after purchasing an additional 228,927 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.82% of Williams Companies worth $599,766,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its position in Williams Companies by 190.3% during the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $755,490,000 after buying an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Williams Companies by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $3,077,942,000 after buying an additional 6,668,950 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 4,992.2% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $222,692,000 after buying an additional 3,631,986 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Williams Companies by 30.4% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,073,602 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $574,856,000 after buying an additional 2,116,526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,753,924 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $491,225,000 after buying an additional 1,668,706 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Payvand Fazel sold 2,898 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 13th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $2,323,682.90. This represents a 8.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Todd J. Rinke sold 7,364 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total value of $547,807.96. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 26,055 shares in the company, valued at $1,938,231.45. The trade was a 22.04% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 90,869 shares of company stock valued at $6,845,227. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of WMB stock opened at $78.41 on Tuesday. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $73.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $67.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $95.78 billion, a PE ratio of 34.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 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 $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.The company's revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company 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 of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio is currently 92.11%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WMB. Scotiabank upped their target price on Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Truist Financial began coverage on Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $84.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Williams Companies from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Wall Street Zen raised Williams Companies from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, April 5th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Williams Companies from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $81.00.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.