Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ Raises Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 375,571 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 10,859 shares during the period. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $23,792,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,358,462,000 after acquiring an additional 1,912,156 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 27.3% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $905,583,000 after purchasing an additional 3,089,390 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter worth about $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON grew its position 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 worth $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 903,457 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.39, for a total value of $132,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 293,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,488,452.55. This trade represents a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.36.

Williams Companies Price Performance

NYSE WMB opened at $72.94 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The company has a market cap of $89.07 billion, a PE ratio of 34.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.65. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $51.58 and a 52 week high of $73.04. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $61.27.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Research analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders 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 2.9%. 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 payout ratio is presently 93.46%.

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.