Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Shares Sold by Barclays PLC

Key Points

• Barclays PLC trimmed its Williams Companies stake by 11.9% in the fourth quarter, selling 373,454 shares and leaving it with 2.77 million shares worth about $166.8 million.
• Wall Street remains broadly positive on WMB, with several firms raising price targets and the stock carrying a consensus “Buy” rating and average target price of $82.40.
• Williams beat earnings expectations in its latest quarter, reporting $0.73 EPS versus $0.63 expected, while also declaring a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, or $2.10 annualized.

Barclays PLC decreased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 11.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,774,261 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 373,454 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned about 0.23% of Williams Companies worth $166,761,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in WMB. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 40.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $740,000 after buying an additional 3,969 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $291,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 568,928 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $35,734,000 after buying an additional 11,926 shares during the period. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 10,248 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $644,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the period. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 160.1% in the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 165,035 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $10,366,000 after buying an additional 101,574 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WMB. Scotiabank increased their target price on Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $82.40.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.9%

NYSE:WMB opened at $71.43 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $87.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.58. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $55.82 and a one year high of $80.07. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business 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 $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies's payout ratio is presently 92.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total value of $195,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 54,101 shares in the company, valued at $4,227,993.15. The trade was a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.48, for a total value of $917,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 98,219 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,511,789.12. The trade was a 10.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,835. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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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