KBC Group NV Trims Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

KBC Group NV trimmed its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 46.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 140,257 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 119,393 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $8,431,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WMB. BROOKFIELD Corp ON raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $755,490,000 after acquiring an additional 7,884,730 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% in 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 period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 4,992.2% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $222,692,000 after acquiring an additional 3,631,986 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 30.4% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,073,602 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $574,856,000 after acquiring an additional 2,116,526 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,753,924 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $491,225,000 after buying an additional 1,668,706 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.75, for a total value of $143,500.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 289,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,747,158.25. This represents a 0.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total transaction of $757,115.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,290,699.30. This represents a 36.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 53,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,912,512. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $71.17 on Friday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $55.56 and a fifty-two week high of $76.87. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $72.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.34. The company has a market cap of $86.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.26, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.90% and a return on equity of 17.32%. The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the prior 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, research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 98.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Williams Companies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.47.

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.