MBB Public Markets I LLC Purchases New Stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Key Points

• MBB Public Markets I LLC has acquired a new stake in Williams Companies, purchasing 5,335 shares valued at approximately $319,000.
• Insiders at Williams Companies have recently sold a total of 10,500 shares for approximately $623,115 in the last three months, suggesting potential concerns about stock ownership.
• Analysts have mixed ratings for Williams Companies, with one strong buy, ten buy ratings, five holds, and a recent consensus target price of $62.86.

MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 5,335 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $319,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Menard Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Saudi Central Bank acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 4,490.9% in the 1st quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 505 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 494 shares during the period. Finally, Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WMB shares. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. CIBC upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a "neutral" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Friday, June 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $62.86.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of Williams Companies stock traded down $0.49 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $58.84. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,630,379 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,573,647. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $44.51 and a one year high of $63.45. The company has a market capitalization of $71.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.65. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $58.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.54.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.03). Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.63% and a return on equity of 16.23%. The business had revenue of $2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.43 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 12th. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.50%.

Insider Activity

In other Williams Companies news, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 4,500 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.47, for a total value of $263,115.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 77,612 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,537,973.64. The trade was a 5.48% 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, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.62, for a total transaction of $115,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 311,645 shares of the company's stock, valued at $17,956,984.90. The trade was a 0.64% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,500 shares of company stock worth $623,115. Insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

About Williams Companies

The Williams Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company primarily in the United States. It operates through Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West, and Gas & NGL Marketing Services segments. The Transmission & Gulf of Mexico segment comprises natural gas pipelines; Transco, Northwest pipeline, MountainWest, and related natural gas storage facilities; and natural gas gathering and processing, and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.