Ninety One UK Ltd Buys 259,553 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Key Points

• Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 51%, buying 259,553 shares to hold 768,819 shares worth about $46.2 million (≈0.06% of the company).
• Several large institutions—including Brookfield, Wellington, SG Americas, Dimensional and Ameriprise—also added significant positions, leaving overall institutional ownership at 86.44%.
• Williams increased its quarterly dividend to $0.525 (annualized $2.10) for a ~3.0% yield with a high payout ratio of 98.13%, and provided FY2026 EPS guidance of $2.20–$2.38.

Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 51.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 768,819 shares of the pipeline company's stock after purchasing an additional 259,553 shares during the quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd owned approximately 0.06% of Williams Companies worth $46,214,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BROOKFIELD Corp ON grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in 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 valued at $222,692,000 after purchasing an additional 3,631,986 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Williams Companies by 30.4% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 27.4% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $71.17 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $72.93 and a 200 day moving average of $65.32. The company has a market capitalization of $86.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.26, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.63. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.56 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This is an increase from Williams Companies's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Williams Companies's payout ratio is presently 98.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Todd J. Rinke sold 7,364 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total value of $547,807.96. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 26,055 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,938,231.45. The trade was a 22.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total value of $757,115.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares in the company, valued at $1,290,699.30. This trade represents a 36.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on WMB shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Williams Companies from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, April 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $77.47.

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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