SBI Okasan Asset Management Co.Ltd. Makes New Investment in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

SBI Okasan Asset Management Co.Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,800 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $466,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 73,662 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,428,000 after buying an additional 3,038 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 203,923 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $12,258,000 after purchasing an additional 1,334 shares during the period. EagleClaw Capital Managment LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. EagleClaw Capital Managment LLC now owns 99,372 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,973,000 after purchasing an additional 8,250 shares during the period. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 312,244 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $18,769,000 after purchasing an additional 40,942 shares during the period. Finally, Godfrey Financial Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $54,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on WMB shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, April 20th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.40.

Williams Companies Stock Down 2.4%

Williams Companies stock opened at $71.41 on Friday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $55.82 and a one year high of $80.07. 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 capitalization of $87.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.03.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total value of $3,768,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,567 shares in the company, valued at $14,815,254.79. The trade was a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Payvand Fazel sold 2,898 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.15, for a total value of $211,988.70. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 31,766 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,323,682.90. The trade was a 8.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 80,762 shares of company stock valued at $6,088,112. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.