Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Grows Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 21.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 450,591 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 80,370 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $28,545,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the second quarter valued at $32,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Williams Companies during the second quarter valued at about $35,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC acquired a new stake in Williams Companies during the third quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Aspect Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 81.3% in the 2nd quarter. Aspect Partners LLC now owns 582 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 261 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on WMB shares. Scotiabank raised Williams Companies from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Tudor Pickering raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.36.

Williams Companies Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $72.94 on Monday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $51.58 and a 1-year high of $73.04. The company has a market capitalization of $89.07 billion, a PE ratio of 34.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.65. 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 50-day moving average of $63.83 and a 200-day moving average of $61.27.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 business 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 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 93.46%.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.39, for a total transaction of $132,780.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 293,545 shares in the company, valued at $19,488,452.55. This represents a 0.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.44% 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.