Shares of Williams Partners LP (NYSE:WPZ) have been given a consensus rating of “Buy” by the eighteen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $44.67.
WPZ has been the topic of several recent research reports. BidaskClub raised shares of Williams Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 5th. Credit Suisse Group raised shares of Williams Partners from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Friday, May 12th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Williams Partners from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $46.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 18th. BMO Capital Markets set a $47.00 target price on shares of Williams Partners and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 2nd. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Williams Partners from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 30th.
Williams Partners (WPZ) traded down 1.205% during trading on Friday, reaching $38.955. 700,054 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $39.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.27. Williams Partners has a one year low of $32.93 and a one year high of $42.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.24 billion, a PE ratio of 23.396 and a beta of 1.43.
Williams Partners (NYSE:WPZ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The pipeline company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.09. Williams Partners had a return on equity of 5.90% and a net margin of 17.82%. The business had revenue of $1.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Williams Partners will post $0.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 4th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 2nd. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.09%. Williams Partners’s payout ratio is 143.71%.
A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital Advisors Inc. OK boosted its position in Williams Partners by 16.7% in the first quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 17,892 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $731,000 after buying an additional 2,565 shares during the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its position in Williams Partners by 22.9% in the first quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 217,700 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,889,000 after buying an additional 40,600 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its position in Williams Partners by 78.7% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 98,691 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,030,000 after buying an additional 43,468 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Williams Partners by 71.1% in the first quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 350,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $14,290,000 after buying an additional 145,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Manhattan Co. boosted its position in Williams Partners by 13.4% in the first quarter. First Manhattan Co. now owns 64,071 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,382,000 after buying an additional 7,563 shares during the last quarter. 23.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Williams Partners Company Profile
Williams Partners L.P. is an energy infrastructure company. The Company has operations across the natural gas value chain from gathering, processing, and interstate transportation of natural gas and natural gas liquids to petchem production of ethylene, propylene, and other olefins. It operates through its Northeast G&P, Atlantic-Gulf, West segment.
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