Castle Hook Partners LP Takes Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Castle Hook Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,033,774 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,140,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WMB. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $747,749,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 190.3% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,077,942,000 after buying an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 21.3% in the 4th 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, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 4,992.2% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $222,692,000 after buying an additional 3,631,986 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.35, for a total transaction of $152,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 287,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,924,589.65. The trade was a 0.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of Williams Companies 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,815,254.79. This trade represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,835 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of WMB opened at $71.26 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $73.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $69.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.83. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.82 and a 52-week high of $80.07. The company has a market cap of $87.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.26, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.58.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share (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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on WMB. Truist Financial began coverage on Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $84.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Williams Companies from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Citigroup raised their target price on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen raised Williams Companies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, April 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, March 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $82.40.

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.