Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec Makes New Investment in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 642,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,738,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,296,991 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,768,298,000 after purchasing an additional 2,100,164 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,018,017,000 after buying an additional 3,314,851 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $1,281,875,000 after buying an additional 3,748,126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 20,036,698 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,204,406,000 after buying an additional 239,732 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $74.19 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.33. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $56.08 and a 1 year high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 25.17%.The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.46 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.45 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 83.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total value of $973,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 268,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,077,064.33. This trade represents a 4.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 17,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,262,930 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on WMB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $85.60.

About Williams Companies

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.