Williams Companies' Q3 Earnings Beat Estimates, Sales Rise Y/Y

The Williams Companies, Inc. WMB reported third-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings per share of 43 cents, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 42 cents. The Transmission & Gulf of Mexico and West segments delivered strong year-over-year results, leading to the outperformance. The bottom line decreased from the year-ago period’s level of 45 cents due to the weak year-over-year performance of the Northeast G&P Segment.Tulsa, OK-based oil and gas storage and transportation company’s revenues of $2.7 billion beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by $6 million. The figure increased from the year-ago quarter’s reported number of $2.6 billion. This outperformance was due to increased service revenues on a year-over-year basis.Williams Companies, Inc. (The) Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Williams Companies, Inc. (The) price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Williams Companies, Inc. (The) QuoteIn the quarter, Williams made significant progress with several key projects, including bringing Transco's Regional Energy Access into full service ahead of schedule on Aug. 1, completing the in-service placement of Mountain West’s Uinta Basin expansion and placing a portion of Transco’s Southside Reliability Enhancement in service.Stay up-to-date with all quarterly releases: See Zacks Earnings Calendar.The company also brought the Anchor facility online, completed construction on Whale in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico, began construction on Transco’s Commonwealth Energy Connector and secured favorable rulings to start the Louisiana Energy Gateway project. Additionally, WMB started construction on two solar projects in the Northeast and signed commercial agreements with a Florida utility to fully participate in the large-scale Lakeland Solar project.Further expanding its infrastructure, the company received the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) certificate for the Mountain West Overthrust Westbound expansion and filed for FERC approval on Transco's 1.6 billion cubic feet per day Southeast Supply Enhancement project. The company executed agreements for the Dalton Lateral Expansion II on Transco and three new expansions on Northwest Pipeline, adding a total of 260 million cubic feet per day of firm capacity.WMB’s Key TakeawaysAdjusted EBITDA totaled $1.7 billion in the quarter under review, which was up 3% year over year. This was driven by positive net contributions from acquisitions and expansion projects.Cash flow from operations amounted to $1.2 billion, which was up 0.7 % from the corresponding quarter of 2023.WMB’s Segmental AnalysisTransmission & Gulf of Mexico: The segment reported an adjusted EBITDA of $830 million, up 10.1% from the year-ago quarter’s level. This was driven by transmission expansions and the acquisition of Gulf Coast Storage.West: This segment focuses on the gathering and processing of assets in the Western United States. Adjusted EBITDA for this segment totaled $330 million, up 4.8% from the prior-year quarter’s level of $315 million.This strong performance was largely driven by the DJ Basin acquisitions, higher OPPL volumes and a boost in NGL services.Northeast G&P:  This segment registered an adjusted EBITDA of $484 million, down 0.2% from $485 million in the year-earlier quarter. The slight decrease in adjusted EBITDA was due to modest reductions in gathering volumes.Gas & NGL Marketing Services: The unit reported an adjusted EBITDA of $4 million, a decrease from $16 million from the prior-year quarter. This was due to lower dry-gas marketing margins.WMB’s Costs, Capex & Balance SheetIn the reported quarter, total costs and expenses of $1.8 billion increased almost 16% from the year-ago quarter’s figure.Total capital expenditure (CapEx) was $1.8 billion. As of Sept. 30, 2024, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $762 million and a long-term debt of $24.8 billion, with a debt-to-capitalization of 62.5%.WMB’s GuidanceWilliams has raised its expectations for 2024, forecasting adjusted EBITDA between $7 billion and $7.15 billion, indicating a $125 million boost to the guidance midpoint. The company also maintains its 2024 capital expenditure plans, expecting growth capex to range from $1.45 billion to $1.75 billion and maintenance capex to fall between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion. This includes $350 million dedicated to emissions reduction and modernization projects.Looking ahead to 2025, Williams anticipates adjusted EBITDA to be between $7.2 billion and $7.6 billion. Growth capex is expected to range from $1.65 billion to $1.95 billion, while maintenance capex is anticipated to be between $750 million and $850 million, with $100 million allocated for emissions and modernization efforts.The company also expects its leverage ratio for 2024 to settle at a midpoint of 3.80x and plans to raise its dividend by 6.1%, increasing the figure to $1.90 per share for 2024, up from $1.79 in 2023.WMB currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Important Energy Earnings So FarRight in the middle of earnings season, there have been a few key energy releases so far. Let us glance through a couple of them.Liberty Energy LBRT, the Denver-CO-based oil and gas equipment company, announced an adjusted net income of 45 cents per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 55 cents. This was primarily due to poor equipment and services execution and lower activity in the reported quarter. Additionally, the bottom line declined from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure of 86 cents due to a year-over-year increase in costs and expenses.Ahead of the earnings release, LBRT’s board of directors announced a dividend of 8 cents per common share payable on Dec. 20, to its stockholders of record as of Dec. 6. This dividend represents a 14% increase from the prior regular quarterly dividend of 7 cents per share. In the quarter, Liberty returned $51 million to its shareholders through a combination of share repurchases and cash dividends.Energy infrastructure provider, Kinder Morgan, Inc. KMI reported third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 25 cents, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 27 cents. The bottom line was flat year over year. The weakness in quarterly results was caused by lower contributions from the Products Pipelines and CO2 business segments.KMI also announced a quarterly cash dividend of 28.75 cents per share for the third quarter of 2024 (annualized dividend of $1.15), implying a 2% increase from the third-quarter 2023 level. The dividend is payable on Nov. 15, 2024, to its shareholders of record as of Oct. 31.Schlumberger Limited SLB, a Houston, TX-based oil and gas equipment and services provider announced third-quarter earnings of 89 cents per share (excluding charges and credits), which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 88 cents. The bottom line also increased from the year-ago quarter’s 78 cents. The strong quarterly earnings were primarily driven by broad-based earnings growth and margin expansion, especially in the Middle East, Asia and offshore North America. Additionally, cost optimization, greater adoption of digital solutions and contributions from long-cycle deepwater and gas projects played significant roles.SLB reported a free cash flow of $1.81 billion in the third quarter. As of Sept. 30, the company had approximately $4.46 billion in cash and short-term investments. At the end of the quarter, it registered a long-term debt of $11.86 billion.Free Report: 5 Clean Energy Stocks with Massive UpsideEnergy is the backbone of our economy. It’s a multi-trillion dollar industry that has created some of the world’s largest and most profitable companies.Now state-of-the-art technology is paving the way for clean energy sources to overtake “old-fashioned” fossil fuels. Trillions of dollars are already pouring into clean energy initiatives, from solar power to hydrogen fuel cells.Emerging leaders from this space could be some of the most exciting stocks in your portfolio.Download Nuclear to Solar: 5 Stocks Powering the Future to see Zacks’ top picks free today.Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (WMB): Free Stock Analysis Report Schlumberger Limited (SLB): Free Stock Analysis Report Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI): Free Stock Analysis Report Liberty Energy Inc. (LBRT): Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks