Williams Companies
WMB on NYSE. Williams sells natural gas, natural gas liquids, and crude oil to customers. Market value $86.6bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Should I look at this?
Good business, but not cheap right now
Why it could be worth it
See cheaper Energy stocks on the list
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $-0.12 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 25.6 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 7 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 77 of 100. Price score: 27 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$72.39 a share, 29% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $56.19 to $80.08.
Dividend: 2.8% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: a shortfall of $108 million in the past 12 months, $1 billion in the year to December 2025.
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $10.6bn | $11.0bn | $10.9bn | $10.5bn | $11.9bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 24.8% | 27.5% | 39.5% | 31.8% | 35.1% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 2.07 | 1.96 | 2.07 | 2.13 | 2.24 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 1.22bn | 1.22bn | 1.22bn | 1.22bn | 1.22bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 7 checks we could run
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt2.24× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 9.1% a year
- Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $3.1 billion last quarter, up 10% on a year ago.
- Profit: $827 million, up 51% on a year ago.
- It keeps 38 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 33 cents a year earlier.
- Over the past 12 months it spent $108 million more cash than it brought in. A year earlier it had $1.9 billion spare.
- About the same number of shares as a year ago.
- Debt is $30.6 billion more than cash, up from $27.7 billion a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in 3 of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $2.7bn |
| December 2024 | $2.7bn |
| March 2025 | $3.0bn |
| June 2025 | $2.8bn |
| September 2025 | $2.9bn |
| December 2025 | $3.2bn |
| March 2026 | $3.0bn |
| June 2026 | $3.1bn |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $706m |
| December 2024 | $486m |
| March 2025 | $691m |
| June 2025 | $546m |
| September 2025 | $647m |
| December 2025 | $734m |
| March 2026 | $865m |
| June 2026 | $827m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- 2 November 2026
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 24 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 2 November 2026
Who owns it
9 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 9 last quarter. 1,827 funds in all.
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| AKO CapitalNicolai Tangen (founder) | $110m | 2.6% | Cut |
| Dodge & CoxDodge & Cox investment committee | $70m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Polaris Capital ManagementBernard Horn | $18m | 1.7% | Cut |
| Horizon KineticsMurray Stahl | $10m | 0.1% | Cut |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $6m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $4m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Barrow HanleyBarrow Hanley team | $3m | <0.1% | Cut |
| First Eagle Investment ManagementMatthew McLennan | $629,066 | <0.1% | Added |
| Cambiar InvestorsBrian Barish | $313,269 | <0.1% | Cut |
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$8.6bnAdded
- Vanguard Capital Management$5.9bn
- State Street$5.4bn
- Bank of America$3.3bn
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$3.2bn
- Wellington Management Group LLP$2.5bnAdded
- Morgan Stanley$2.4bnCut
- Geode Capital Management$2.2bn
- Clearbridge Investments$1.8bnAdded
- JPMorgan Chase$1.6bnCut
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
3 investors own more than 5%.
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor8.3%Since 31 March 2025
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor7.5%Since 31 March 2026
- STATE STREET CORPORATIONPassive investor5.5%Since 30 September 2025
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 8.3% | 31 March 2025 | |
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 7.5% | 31 March 2026 | |
STATE STREET CORPORATION Passive investor | 5.5% | 30 September 2025 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 7 sold $11m, $530,120 of it under preset trading plans.
- Wilson Terrance LaneSVP & General CounselSold
- Date
- 1 October 2026
- Shares
- 2,000
- Price
- $67.85
- Value
- $135,700
- Wilson Terrance LaneSVP & General CounselSold
- Date
- 1 September 2026
- Shares
- 2,000
- Price
- $75.56
- Value
- $151,120
- Wilson Terrance LaneSVP & General CounselSold
- Date
- 14 August 2026
- Shares
- 13,000
- Price
- $74.87
- Value
- $973,317
- Wilson Terrance LaneSVP & General CounselSold
- Date
- 3 August 2026
- Shares
- 2,000
- Price
- $70.65
- Value
- $141,300
- Wilson Terrance LaneSVP & General CounselSold
- Date
- 1 July 2026
- Shares
- 2,000
- Price
- $74.16
- Value
- $148,320
- Wilson Terrance LaneSVP & General CounselSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 1 June 2026
- Shares
- 2,000
- Price
- $71.30
- Value
- $142,600
- Jasek Glen G.Senior Vice PresidentSold
- Date
- 15 May 2026
- Shares
- 2,500
- Price
- $78.16
- Value
- $195,392
- Larsen Larry CExecutive Vice President & COOSold
- Date
- 14 May 2026
- Shares
- 12,000
- Price
- $76.49
- Value
- $917,880
- Porter John DeanEVP & CFOSold
- Date
- 6 May 2026
- Shares
- 50,000
- Price
- $75.37
- Value
- $4m
- Wilson Terrance LaneSVP & General CounselSold
- Date
- 1 May 2026
- Shares
- 2,000
- Price
- $76.35
- Value
- $152,700
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 October 2026 | Wilson Terrance Lane SVP & General Counsel | Sold | 2,000 | $67.85 | $135,700 |
| 1 September 2026 | Wilson Terrance Lane SVP & General Counsel | Sold | 2,000 | $75.56 | $151,120 |
| 14 August 2026 | Wilson Terrance Lane SVP & General Counsel | Sold | 13,000 | $74.87 | $973,317 |
| 3 August 2026 | Wilson Terrance Lane SVP & General Counsel | Sold | 2,000 | $70.65 | $141,300 |
| 1 July 2026 | Wilson Terrance Lane SVP & General Counsel | Sold | 2,000 | $74.16 | $148,320 |
| 1 June 2026 | Wilson Terrance Lane SVP & General Counsel | Sold under a preset trading plan | 2,000 | $71.30 | $142,600 |
| 15 May 2026 | Jasek Glen G. Senior Vice President | Sold | 2,500 | $78.16 | $195,392 |
| 14 May 2026 | Larsen Larry C Executive Vice President & COO | Sold | 12,000 | $76.49 | $917,880 |
| 6 May 2026 | Porter John Dean EVP & CFO | Sold | 50,000 | $75.37 | $4m |
| 1 May 2026 | Wilson Terrance Lane SVP & General Counsel | Sold | 2,000 | $76.35 | $152,700 |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
What could go wrong
- It carries a lot of debt: 2.2× its equity.
- It isn't cheap on profits: 25.6× operating profit.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.