Managed Account Advisors LLC recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Williams Cos Inc (NYSE:WMB). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Energy company by 27.60% to 43.03 million shares with purchase of 9.31 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 3.54% valued currently at $1.58 billion. In addition, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. raised its holdings by 10.91 million to 29.28 million shares. And Geode Capital Management LLC has lifted its position by 2.05% or 0.56 million shares – to 27.71 million shares.
With over 6.38 million Williams Cos Inc (WMB) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $35.52 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $226.58 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 8.56% and its price on 01/02/24 gained nearly 1.98%. Currently, there are 1.22B common shares owned by the public and among those 1.21B shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 25 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for WMB have a consensus price objective of $38.50. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $43.00 and a low of $35.00. The average price target is 7.74% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -1.49% over that period. But an upside of 17.4% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $38.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 80 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 44 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 2,196,700 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 36 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 1,019,385 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Williams Cos Inc are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, SPDR Series – Energy Select Secto, and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 38.1 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $1.4 billion. The company bought an additional 45604.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.13% of the shares outstanding. SPDR Series – Energy Select Secto sold -0.38 million shares to see its total holdings shrink to 34.25 million shares valued at over $1.26 billion and representing 2.82% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 0.14 million shares to bring its total holdings to over 29.38 million shares at a value of $1.08 billion. Vanguard 500 Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.42% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Williams Cos Inc (NYSE: WMB) opened at $34.95, up $0.12 from a prior closing price of $34.83. However, the script later moved the day high at 35.52, up 1.98%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 1.08% and 7.87% over the past three months. WMB shares are trading 1.98% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 7.73% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $27.80 and touched a high of $37.45 over the same period. WMB has an average intraday trading volume of 6.44 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 0.83%, 0.66%, and 8.15% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Williams Cos Inc (NYSE: WMB) shares accounts for 88.00% of the company’s 1.22B shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 40.42%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 48.16% and 2.44% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $43.21B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.12. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 16.05, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $2.21. The company has a PEG of 8.02 and a Quick Ratio of 0.72 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 2.17. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.11% over the week and 1.64% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Williams Cos Inc (WMB) will achieve an EPS of $0.47 for the current quarter, $0.49 for the next quarter and $1.89 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.4 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.53. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.55 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 10.66%, and -6.63% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 2.00% over the next five years, compared to -8.58% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 25 brokerage firm advisors rate Williams Cos Inc (WMB) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.24. Specifically, 9 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 13 of the 25 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the WMB, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Goldman stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on October 06, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $35.
