Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Stock Sees Heavy Call Option Buying

Key Points

• Call-option activity surged: Traders bought 151,361 WMB call options, roughly 997% above the typical daily volume of 13,797, signaling unusually strong bullish options interest.
• Analysts remain positive: Williams Companies has a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $86.06, with several firms recently raising their targets to between $88 and $103.
• Strong institutional ownership and quarterly growth: Institutional investors own 86.44% of the stock, while the company reported $0.50 quarterly EPS and $3.05 billion in revenue, up 9.8% year over year.

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 151,361 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 997% compared to the typical daily volume of 13,797 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on WMB. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $82.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Williams Companies from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $86.06.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total transaction of $973,310.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 268,159 shares in the company, valued at $20,077,064.33. This trade represents a 4.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 19,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,401,430. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Williams Companies

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,320,606,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 43.4% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 33,097,208 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $2,460,446,000 after acquiring an additional 10,013,946 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 20.9% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 11,710,478 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $852,289,000 after purchasing an additional 2,020,899 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $596,077,000. Finally, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Williams Companies during the second quarter valued at approximately $500,305,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

WMB stock traded up $1.91 on Tuesday, reaching $73.66. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,106,244 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,120,013. Williams Companies has a 52 week low of $56.19 and a 52 week high of $80.07. The company has a market capitalization of $90.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $72.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 25.17%. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.46 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Williams Companies will post 2.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Company Profile

The Williams Companies, Inc is an energy infrastructure company headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Founded in 1908 as Williams Brothers, the company has evolved from an early pipeline contractor into a major operator of natural gas infrastructure in the United States.

Williams primarily gathers, processes, transports and stores natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its assets include interstate and regional pipelines, gas processing and fractionation facilities, storage operations, and gathering systems that connect producers with utilities, industrial customers, power generators and other energy markets.

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