Forensic Analysis · Energy / Oil & Gas · as of Aug 10, 2026
Williams Companies, Inc. (WMB)
A forensic read on Williams Companies, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
31.4
P / E (ttm)
20.4%
ROE
$87.6B
Market cap
2.78%
Dividend yield
13.8%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Williams Companies, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.5, placing it in the Grey zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
6.0%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 6.0% in the latest fiscal year and steady — slightly below its ~8% cost of capital — reinvestment is roughly a wash.
+0.1%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed +0% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+0.1%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
243% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $2.4B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 243% of free cash flow, but 41% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep. Counting the $93M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 252%.
$187M
FY2020–FY2020
Goodwill impairments.Took $187M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2020 ($187M)) — about 89% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-31%
FY2015→FY2016
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~31% in FY2016 (from FY2015) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$11.95B
Revenue Growth YoY+13.8%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+2.9%
Net Margin21.9%
Free Cash Flow$1.00B
Return on Equity20.4%
Debt / Equity2.24x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Williams Companies, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?