Williams Companies Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:WMB)

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders bought 150,674 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,457% compared to the average daily volume of 9,678 call options.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of WMB traded up $1.18 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $72.43. The stock had a trading volume of 2,850,395 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,791,461. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market cap of $88.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.58. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $73.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.16. Williams Companies has a 12-month low of $55.82 and a 12-month high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.The company had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Williams Companies will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 92.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WMB. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Williams Companies from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, March 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Williams Companies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, April 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $82.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total transaction of $3,768,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,815,254.79. This represents a 20.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.35, for a total value of $152,700.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 287,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,924,589.65. This trade represents a 0.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,835 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WMB. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $747,749,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 7,884,730 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 15.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,077,942,000 after acquiring an additional 6,668,950 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,281,875,000 after acquiring an additional 3,748,126 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 4,992.2% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $222,692,000 after acquiring an additional 3,631,986 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.