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

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its holdings in 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 institutional investor owned 450,591 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 80,370 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $28,545,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the second quarter valued at about $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 190.3% in the second quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $755,490,000 after buying an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 27.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $905,583,000 after acquiring an additional 3,089,390 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 39.0% during the 2nd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 6,954,733 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $436,827,000 after acquiring an additional 1,950,485 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,358,462,000 after acquiring an additional 1,912,156 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.39, for a total value of $132,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 293,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,488,452.55. This represents a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $72.94 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.27. 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 company has a market cap of $89.07 billion, a PE ratio of 34.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.65. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $51.58 and a 12 month high of $73.04.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 93.46%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMB has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $75.36.

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.