Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Position Trimmed by Columbus Macro LLC

Key Points

• Columbus Macro LLC reduced its WMB stake by 14.7% in the first quarter, selling 28,300 shares and leaving it with 164,583 shares valued at about $12.0 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains bullish on Williams Companies, with several analysts raising price targets and a consensus rating of “Buy” and average target of $82.40.
• The company reported solid earnings and a dividend, posting $0.73 EPS for the quarter versus $0.63 expected and declaring a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, equal to a 2.7% yield.

Columbus Macro LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 14.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 164,583 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 28,300 shares during the period. Williams Companies accounts for 1.3% of Columbus Macro LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Columbus Macro LLC's holdings in Williams Companies were worth $11,978,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Williams Companies by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $8,052,537,000 after acquiring an additional 883,245 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $4,086,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,296,991 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted 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 acquiring an additional 6,668,950 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $2,768,298,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100,164 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $2,018,017,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,851 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group increased their price target on Williams Companies from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Williams Companies from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $82.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $82.40.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $77.43 on Friday. The firm's 50 day moving average is $73.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.72. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $55.82 and a 52 week high of $80.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.96, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.The business's revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Williams Companies's payout ratio is presently 92.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total transaction of $3,768,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 196,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,815,254.79. The trade was a 20.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.35, for a total value of $152,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 287,159 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,924,589.65. The trade was a 0.69% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,177,835 over the last 90 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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