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This is the third piece in a series examining “boring” large-cap stocks that have outperformed the Nasdaq-100 over the past five years. The first piece introduced the five companies and the data. The second piece covered defense and nuclear supplier Curtiss-Wright. This week: a company that moves natural gas through pipes.
Most investors can name the biggest winners of the past five years without thinking too hard. They’re the names that show up every day in the financial news: Nvidia. Apple. Meta. Micron. Williams Companies (WMB) is not and likely won’t ever be one of those names. But if you’re after performance, you might wish you’d uncovered the stock five years ago. As of June 3, 2026, Its 5-year total return of roughly 227% with dividends reinvested beats the Nasdaq-100’s 133% return by nearly 70 percentage points. All without the benefit of nightly recommendations from CNBC.
‘BORING STOCKS’ SERIES
Part 1:These stocks crushed the Nasdaq-100 over past 5 years
Part 2:This stock has had a 500% return on investment
You could argue that the company’s primary business is boring. It moves natural gas through pipelines. That’s about it. And yet, here we are.
IMPORTANT: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. You should conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
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What Williams Companies Actually Does
WMB is a century-old pipeline company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It provides energy infrastructure in the form of a 33,000-mile pipeline network that moves about one-third of the nation’s natural gas. The company’s Transco interstate pipeline system runs for roughly 10,000 miles between South Texas and New York City. That pipeline alone delivers about 15% of the natural gas consumed in the United States.
As the company responsible for more than 33% of the nation’s natural gas distribution network, WMB is in an enviable position. Williams collects a fee on all the natural gas that moves through its pipes, so having a large network as it does allows it to be more profitable. Additionally, since WMB’s pipelines are largely the only way to move that gas efficiently, its business is generally recurring and long-term.
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The Toll Road Nobody Thinks About
Think of Williams as the operator of a highway system for energy. By simply acting as a pathway for the nation’s natural gas, Williams Companies doesn’t have to invest heavily in exploration or storage or extraction. All it does is sit in the toll booth of the pipelines it has created and collect fees. That’s the type of business that generates steady, predictable cash flows regardless of where commodity prices happen to be on any given day.
And the volumes are growing. Wood Mackenzie projects natural gas demand to grow nearly 35% over the next decade. As you might expect, WMB is already preparing for that increasing demand, with a robust backlog of expansion projects already contracted and under construction. The company commercialized three new major projects in Q1 2026 alone, per its earnings report.
The AI Angle
Collecting a toll on natural gas movements could be considered mundane, even boring. But the WMB story has an exciting new angle that could be one of the reasons the stock is doing so well.
AI centers, which are growing exponentially, need massive amounts of electricity. The so-called “hyperscalers” (Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta) all need power at a scale that renewables alone can’t reliably deliver. Natural gas is becoming a go-to solution, as it is dispatchable and available around the clock. Someone has to move that gas, and in many cases, it is Williams Companies.
The company is expanding Transco specifically to serve the Virginia data center market. Its VP of New Energy Ventures, Jaclyn Presnal, put it plainly in the company’s Q1 earnings report, noting that natural gas can scale up and meet the needs of AI and data centers.
The Neo project is the largest power project Williams has announced to date. The 682-megawatt power initiative is a direct wager on AI-driven power demand going forward. The 12.5-year contract represents a $2.3 billion investment.
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The Numbers
The fundamentals back up the stock price. In Q1 2026, reported May 5, 2026:
- Revenue of $3.03 billion
- Net income of $865 million, up 25% year-over-year
- Adjusted EBITDA of $2.254 billion, up 13% and a new quarterly record
- Adjusted EPS of $0.73, up 22%
- Three new major expansion projects commercialized during the quarter
Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to an adjusted EBITDA midpoint of $8.2 billion and also raised growth capital expenditure guidance to a midpoint of $7.3 billion.
The company also raised its quarterly dividend 5% to $0.525 per share in 2026 ($2.10 annualized), marking 10 consecutive years of dividend increases.
All of these earnings gains and dividend increases reflect a successful, growing company.
Boring by Design
Williams has generated killer returns without being flashy. While most investors in Apple can name the bulk of that company’s product line, even knowledgeable shareholders of Williams Companies may not understand the ins and outs of the venerable pipeline operator.
But that doesn’t matter when it comes to stock price performance. Long-term contracts and a century-old pipeline may not make for the most exciting reading, but the company’s profits and stock price performance are more than most investors can ask for.
What This Means for You
This isn’t a recommendation to buy Williams Companies. Past performance doesn’t predict future returns. And considering the stock’s tremendous gains over the past five years, investors shouldn’t necessarily expect the same type of returns going forward.
But WMB illustrates the type of company where individual investors can get an edge. Williams is under-covered by Wall Street and it manages a global infrastructure business with pricing power and long-term contracted revenue. That’s a winning mix that many investors, even professional ones, don’t understand until they see the returns.
Next week, we’ll cover Parker Hannifin (PH), the industrial motion and control company that has solidly outpaced both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq-100.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes. The company mentioned is an example of a research thesis and should not be considered an investment recommendation. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investments carry risk, including potential loss of principal. Consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Performance figures are 5-year total returns with dividends reinvested, sourced from totalrealreturns.com as of market close on June 3, 2026.
This series on ‘boring stocks’ is written for TheStreet by Nifty 50+