Federated Hermes Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,561,784 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 181,669 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 0.13% of Williams Companies worth $98,939,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,358,462,000 after acquiring an additional 1,912,156 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 27.3% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $905,583,000 after purchasing an additional 3,089,390 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Williams Companies during the second quarter worth approximately $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON raised its stake in Williams Companies by 190.3% during the second quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,056,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $631,632,000 after purchasing an additional 903,457 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.90, for a total transaction of $123,800.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 297,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,418,035.50. The trade was a 0.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on WMB. Citigroup upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Barclays upped their price target on Williams Companies from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.29.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB stock opened at $66.96 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $81.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.42. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.58 and a 1 year high of $67.01. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.96.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.74% and a net margin of 20.61%.The company had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.43 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 103.09%.

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.