SailingStone Capital Partners LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

SailingStone Capital Partners LLC reduced its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 4.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 215,914 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 9,865 shares during the quarter. Williams Companies makes up 3.1% of SailingStone Capital Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. SailingStone Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $16,051,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in Williams Companies by 7,567.4% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 162,591,616 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $12,087,061,000 after purchasing an additional 160,471,058 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,086,344,000 after buying an additional 1,296,991 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,768,298,000 after buying an additional 2,100,164 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position 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 worth $2,018,017,000 after buying an additional 3,314,851 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 43.4% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 33,097,208 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,460,446,000 after buying an additional 10,013,946 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on WMB shares. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Three 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $85.60.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB opened at $75.24 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $73.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.56. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $56.19 and a 1 year high of $80.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.03 billion, a PE ratio of 29.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.59.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. Williams Companies had a net margin of 25.17% and a return on equity of 18.49%. The business had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.46 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 83.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Terrance Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.56, for a total transaction of $151,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 264,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,967,410.04. This represents a 0.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 19,000 shares of company stock worth $1,414,050 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Company Profile

Williams Companies, Inc is an energy infrastructure company focused primarily on gathering, processing, transporting and storing natural gas and natural gas liquids. The company provides the infrastructure and related services that connect natural gas supplies with utilities, power generators, industrial customers, liquefied natural gas facilities and other markets.

Williams operates a large network of interstate and regional natural gas pipelines, gathering systems, processing facilities and storage assets across the United States.