Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Stake Raised by CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

Key Points

• CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT increased its stake in Williams Companies by 6.6% in Q1, buying 105,000 additional shares and lifting its total to 1,700,100 shares worth about $123.7 million.
• Wall Street remains bullish on WMB, with the consensus rating at “Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.94. Recent firms including Jefferies, Truist, Scotiabank, Stifel, and Goldman Sachs either raised or initiated favorable ratings.
• The company reported better-than-expected quarterly EPS of $0.73 versus $0.63 expected, and it paid a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, implying a 2.9% yield. However, insiders have been selling shares, including CFO John Dean Porter and SVP Glen G. Jasek.

CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 6.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,700,100 shares of the pipeline company's stock after buying an additional 105,000 shares during the period. Williams Companies makes up about 6.1% of CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT's portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT owned about 0.14% of Williams Companies worth $123,733,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 0.7% in the 4th 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 last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $4,086,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,296,991 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,100,164 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in Williams Companies by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $2,018,017,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,851 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $84.00 price objective for the company. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Williams Companies from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $82.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, April 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $82.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 196,567 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,815,254.79. This represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the 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 sale, the senior vice president owned 54,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,227,993.15. The trade was a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,182,655 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of WMB opened at $73.09 on Monday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $74.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.30. The company has a market cap of $89.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.57. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $55.82 and a twelve month high of $80.07.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies's payout ratio is 92.11%.

Williams Companies 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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