WMB Options Surge Bullish as Bears Stay on the Sidelines

Williams Companies heads into its August 4 print with the most aggressive call-side positioning seen in months — a sharp pivot from an already bullish setup.

Options traders have rarely been this one-sided. The put/call ratio collapsed to 0.34 on Monday, nearly three and a half standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.48. That's the lowest reading in over a year, with the 52-week floor at 0.28 providing almost no buffer below current levels. The move signals heavy call demand relative to puts — a notable step up in bullish conviction even against the backdrop of prior previews that already flagged below-average put activity. The stock itself closed at $70.43, down 1.6% on Monday and off 3.7% for the month, largely tracking sector weakness: peers KMI, TRGP, and AM all fell between 2% and 6% on the week.

Short interest reinforces the picture of an uncontested bull market in the borrow. Bears have continued their retreat — SI dropped another 16% on the week to just 1.63% of the free float, extending a decline that has been running since early July when the figure was closer to 2.5%. Borrow costs remain negligible at 0.46%, and availability is extraordinarily loose at over 8,500% of short interest, meaning the lending pool holds roughly 85 shares for every one currently borrowed. There is no short-side infrastructure being built into this print. The ORTEX short score has also drifted lower, from 33.3 in late July to 31.7 — consistent with a position that is unwinding rather than consolidating.

The analyst community is leaning clearly bullish, with 13 buy ratings against just 4 holds and a consensus price target of $83.55 — implying nearly 19% upside from current levels. Morgan Stanley raised its target to $99 in mid-July, and JP Morgan lifted to $89 at the start of the month, both maintaining Overweight. The bull case centres on Williams' 10%-plus EBITDA CAGR target through 2030, structural natural gas demand growth from LNG and data-centre power, and a balance sheet targeting 3.5–4x leverage. Bears point to the absence of direct commodity price exposure as a ceiling on upside, alongside risks from geopolitical disruption to Gulf Coast LNG operations and the possibility of a demand slowdown. Valuation is stretched — the stock trades at roughly 13.6x EV/EBITDA and 28.6x earnings — leaving execution on the growth roadmap as the primary justification.

Today's print is therefore less a test of whether Williams is growing and more a question of whether the company can demonstrate progress toward that 10%-plus EBITDA target at a pace that justifies a multiple already pricing in the ambition.