Bedell Frazier Investment Counselling LLC Purchases New Stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Bedell Frazier Investment Counselling LLC acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 13,088 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $822,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Williams Companies during the 1st quarter worth $335,419,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 45.0% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,339,078 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $677,623,000 after purchasing an additional 3,519,370 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 34.0% in the first quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 11,287,921 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $674,566,000 after buying an additional 2,861,988 shares during the period. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 275.7% in the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 2,609,318 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $155,933,000 after buying an additional 1,914,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,358,462,000 after buying an additional 1,912,156 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 4,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.53, for a total value of $242,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 302,645 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,319,101.85. This trade represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on WMB shares. Mizuho raised Williams Companies to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 4th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on Williams Companies from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.21.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.7%

NYSE WMB opened at $59.93 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $73.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.48. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $51.58 and a 12 month high of $65.55. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $60.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.46.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.23% and a net margin of 21.63%.Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 103.09%.

Williams Companies Profile

The Williams Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company primarily in the United States. It operates through Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West, and Gas & NGL Marketing Services segments. The Transmission & Gulf of Mexico segment comprises natural gas pipelines; Transco, Northwest pipeline, MountainWest, and related natural gas storage facilities; and natural gas gathering and processing, and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.