Ceredex Value Advisors LLC Sells 35,450 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Ceredex Value Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 8.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 404,350 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 35,450 shares during the quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $25,616,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 14.2% during the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,338,690 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $84,848,000 after purchasing an additional 166,782 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,007,441 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $64,446,000 after buying an additional 51,485 shares in the last quarter. Mosaic Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 3rd quarter worth about $2,217,000. PFG Advisors raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 4,881 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 38,982 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,301,000 after buying an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 27,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.92, for a total transaction of $1,968,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 293,159 shares in the company, valued at $21,377,154.28. The trade was a 8.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total value of $757,115.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,290,699.30. The trade was a 36.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,107 shares of company stock valued at $3,009,215. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Scotiabank upgraded Williams Companies from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Zacks Research raised Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Williams Companies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Two investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.86.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $73.13 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $51.58 and a 12 month high of $76.87. The company has a market capitalization of $89.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.17, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.63. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $67.21 and its 200 day moving average is $62.59.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Research analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 93.46%.

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.