Insider Selling: Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) SVP Sells 7,364 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• SVP Todd Rinke sold 7,364 shares on March 11 at an average price of $74.39 for a total of $547,807.96, reducing his stake by 22.04% to 26,055 shares (filed with the SEC).
• Williams raised its quarterly dividend to $0.525 (annualized $2.10) with an ex-dividend date of March 13 and a yield of 2.8%, though the dividend payout ratio is high at 98.13%.
• The company reported Q EPS of $0.55 (vs. $0.57 consensus) and set FY2026 guidance of 2.200–2.380 EPS; analysts rate the stock a "Moderate Buy" on average with a $75.86 target.

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) SVP Todd 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 approximately $1,938,231.45. This represents a 22.04% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB stock traded up $0.56 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $74.96. 1,544,636 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,577,936. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $67.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.79. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $51.58 and a 12 month high of $76.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.03, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.63.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.90% and a return on equity of 17.32%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Williams Companies's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio is 98.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on WMB shares. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Williams Companies from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, March 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $75.86.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $8,052,537,000 after purchasing an additional 883,245 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised 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 purchasing an additional 1,296,991 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings 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 worth $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Williams Companies by 4.8% during 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 buying an additional 2,100,164 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $2,018,017,000 after buying an additional 3,314,851 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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