Conning Inc. Sells 288 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Conning Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,650 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 288 shares during the period. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $920,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the first quarter valued at approximately $335,419,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Williams Companies by 45.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,339,078 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $677,623,000 after buying an additional 3,519,370 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC raised its stake in 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 worth $155,933,000 after buying an additional 1,914,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Williams Companies by 6.0% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 29,624,104 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,770,336,000 after buying an additional 1,680,477 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $62.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $76.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.65. Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $49.30 and a twelve month high of $65.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The company has a 50 day moving average of $59.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.90 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.23% and a net margin of 21.63%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 12th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.50%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on WMB shares. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. CIBC raised shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, August 15th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, September 19th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $66.00 price objective for the company. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.62, for a total value of $115,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 311,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,956,984.90. This trade represents a 0.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.47, for a total transaction of $263,115.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 77,612 shares in the company, valued at $4,537,973.64. The trade was a 5.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,500 shares of company stock valued at $497,715. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

About Williams Companies

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.