SBI Okasan Asset Management Co.Ltd. Buys Shares of 7,800 Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

SBI Okasan Asset Management Co.Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 7,800 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $466,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,540,556 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $287,644,000 after purchasing an additional 134,777 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 184,123 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $11,664,000 after purchasing an additional 16,027 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $4,627,000. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp grew its position in Williams Companies by 3,344.8% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC grew its position in Williams Companies by 7.4% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank boosted 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. Citigroup boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Williams Companies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 5th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $82.40.

Williams Companies Trading Down 2.4%

NYSE WMB opened at $71.41 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $87.23 billion, a PE ratio of 31.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $73.77 and a 200-day moving average of $68.03. 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 1-year low of $55.82 and a 1-year high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.46 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 92.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Payvand Fazel sold 2,898 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 31,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,323,682.90. This represents a 8.36% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Todd J. Rinke sold 7,364 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 26,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,938,231.45. The trade was a 22.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 80,762 shares of company stock worth $6,088,112 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.