Novem Group Acquires New Shares in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Key Points

• Novem Group acquired a new stake of 19,139 shares in Williams Companies in Q4, valued at about $1.15 million, amid broad institutional accumulation that now represents 86.44% ownership.
• Williams carries a consensus Buy rating with an average price target of $78.60 after multiple upgrades and target increases from firms including Stifel, Scotiabank and RBC.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.525 (annualized $2.10) for a roughly 3.0% yield

Novem Group acquired a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 19,139 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $1,150,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BROOKFIELD Corp ON raised its position in Williams Companies by 190.3% in the second quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position 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 during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Williams Companies by 4,992.2% in 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 period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Williams Companies by 30.4% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,073,602 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $574,856,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,526 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in Williams Companies by 27.4% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,753,924 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $491,225,000 after purchasing an additional 1,668,706 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Zacks Research raised Williams Companies from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $78.60.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.3%

Williams Companies stock opened at $70.92 on Tuesday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $55.56 and a twelve month high of $76.87. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $72.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.63.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.The company had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.75, for a total value of $143,500.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 289,159 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,747,158.25. This represents a 0.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Todd J. Rinke sold 7,364 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total value of $547,807.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 26,055 shares in the company, valued at $1,938,231.45. This trade represents a 22.04% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 53,369 shares of company stock worth $3,912,512 over the last ninety days. 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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