Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Shares Sold by Savant Capital LLC

Key Points

• Savant Capital LLC cut its stake in Williams Companies by 46.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 24,132 shares and leaving it with 27,893 shares worth about $1.68 million.
• Wall Street remains bullish on WMB, with several analysts raising price targets; the stock now carries a consensus Buy rating and an average target price of $82.40.
• Insiders have been selling shares, including SVP Payvand Fazel and COO Larry C. Larsen, while the company recently reported quarterly EPS above expectations and declared a $0.525 dividend payable June 29.

Savant Capital LLC decreased its position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 46.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 27,893 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 24,132 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC's holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,677,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 3.1% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,540,556 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $287,644,000 after acquiring an additional 134,777 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at $4,627,000. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 3,344.8% in the 3rd quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 17,465 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,106,000 after buying an additional 16,958 shares during the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 261,000 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $15,689,000 after buying an additional 17,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 21.0% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,105,570 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $125,839,000 after buying an additional 365,546 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an "outperformer" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Williams Companies from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note 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, Scotiabank lifted 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $82.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Payvand Fazel sold 2,898 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.15, for a total transaction of $211,988.70. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 31,766 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,323,682.90. This represents a 8.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 98,219 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,511,789.12. This represents a 10.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 78,762 shares of company stock valued at $5,937,632. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $71.41 on Monday. The business's fifty day moving average price is $73.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $87.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.32, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.58. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.82 and a 1-year high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.46 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio is 92.11%.

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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