Korea Investment CORP Acquires New Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Korea Investment CORP bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 860,293 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,954,000. Korea Investment CORP owned approximately 0.07% of Williams Companies at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,052,537,000 after purchasing an additional 883,245 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,086,344,000 after buying an additional 1,296,991 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,768,298,000 after buying an additional 2,100,164 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,018,017,000 after buying an additional 3,314,851 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,281,875,000 after buying an additional 3,748,126 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WMB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. 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. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $85.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total transaction of $973,310.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 268,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,077,064.33. This trade represents a 4.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 17,000 shares of company stock worth $1,262,930 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $70.71 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $73.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $73.13. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $56.08 and a 52 week high of $80.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 25.17%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.46 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 83.67%.

More Williams Companies News

Here are the key news stories impacting Williams Companies this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its price target for Williams Companies to $103, signaling substantial potential upside from recent trading levels and providing a constructive counterpoint to the earnings estimate cuts. Morgan Stanley Increases Williams Companies Price Target to $103
• Neutral Sentiment: The company’s latest reported quarter was solid: Williams earned $0.50 per share, matching consensus, while revenue of $3.05 billion exceeded expectations and increased 9.8% year over year. Its fee-based pipeline operations provide relatively stable cash flows.
• Negative Sentiment: US Capital Advisors lowered its EPS forecasts across several periods, including fourth-quarter 2026 EPS to $0.57 from $0.60, first-quarter 2027 EPS to $0.55 from $0.59, second-quarter 2027 EPS to $0.40 from $0.48, and third-quarter 2027 EPS to $0.50 from $0.55.
• Negative Sentiment: The firm also reduced its full-year 2027 EPS estimate to $2.07 from $2.28 and its 2028 forecast to $2.67 from $2.86. These revisions suggest analysts see weaker near- to medium-term earnings growth than previously expected and are likely the main reason the stock has decreased.

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.