Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Shares Sold by Chickasaw Capital Management LLC

Chickasaw Capital Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,051,969 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 109,713 shares during the quarter. Williams Companies makes up approximately 7.6% of Chickasaw Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.25% of Williams Companies worth $183,454,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 15.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,575,898 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $923,383,000 after buying an additional 158,077 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter valued at $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON lifted its position in Williams Companies by 190.3% during the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after buying an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in Williams Companies by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 9,600,016 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $610,369,000 after buying an additional 481,082 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the subject of several analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup increased their price target on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Scotiabank upgraded Williams Companies from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 27,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.92, for a total transaction of $1,968,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 293,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,377,154.28. This trade represents a 8.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total transaction of $757,115.37. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,290,699.30. This trade represents a 36.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 51,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,769,012. 0.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Up 1.6%

Williams Companies stock opened at $73.56 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The company’s 50-day moving average is $69.86 and its 200-day moving average is $63.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.86 billion, a PE ratio of 34.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.63. Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $51.58 and a fifty-two week high of $76.87.

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

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.525 dividend. 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. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 98.13%.

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.