Williams Cos. Boosts Dividend
January 09 2017 - 06:33PM
Dow Jones News
By Ezequiel Minaya
Natural-gas pipeline company Williams Cos. and subsidiary
Williams Partners LP said Monday they planned to reset their
quarterly payouts and added that the parent company would boost its
ownership stake in the limited partnership.
Williams Cos. said it was increasing its dividend for the
quarter ending in March by 50%, to 30 cents a share while, for the
same period, Williams Partners would cut its distribution by 29% to
60 cents.
Williams Cos. added it would issue 65 million shares of common
stock to finance the purchase of some 289 million units of Williams
Partners at a price of $36.09 a unit, a 6.6% discount to Monday's
closing price. The company estimated that the transaction was
valued at $11.4 billion.
Shares of Williams Cos slipped 7.1% to $29.65 after hours, while
shares of Williams Partners sagged 6.4% after hours to $36.18.
Williams Cos. set up its infrastructure partnership in 2005 to
hold pipelines and natural-gas processing facilities.
Shares of Williams Cos. and Williams Partners have risen 57% and
65%, respectively, in the past 12 months as energy companies have
started to recover following a prolonged downturn in energy
prices.
During the slump, oil prices fell to 12-year low below $28 a
barrel in 2016. The market, however, has since been buoyed by
efforts by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut
production.
Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 09, 2017 18:18 ET (23:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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