Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB)
by Jessica Moore · The Cerbat GemWilliams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB – Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 140,820 call options on the company. This is an increase of 1,438% compared to the typical daily volume of 9,156 call options.
Insider Activity
In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares in the company, valued at $1,290,699.30. This represents a 36.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Todd J. Rinke sold 7,364 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total value of $547,807.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 26,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,938,231.45. This represents a 22.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 48,471 shares of company stock worth $3,557,023. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Williams Companies
Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $747,749,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,281,875,000 after buying an additional 3,748,126 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in Williams Companies by 4,992.2% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $222,692,000 after buying an additional 3,631,986 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Williams Companies Stock Down 1.0%
Shares of Williams Companies stock traded down $0.76 on Thursday, reaching $73.64. 5,648,573 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,430,138. The company has a market capitalization of $89.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.41, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. Williams Companies has a one year low of $51.58 and a one year high of $76.87. The company has a 50-day moving average of $67.77 and a 200 day moving average of $62.79.
Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.
Williams Companies Increases Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. 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 yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 93.46%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several analysts recently commented on WMB shares. Zacks Research raised Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Scotiabank upgraded Williams Companies from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $84.00 in a report on Friday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Williams Companies from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.86.
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.