Williams resumed at Overweight by Barclays ahead of potential catalysts

• Williams Cos. (WMB +2.1%) is reinstated with an Overweight rating and $35 price target, while Williams Partners (WPZ -1.4%) wins only an Equal Weight rating with a $37 target, at Barclays,
• WMB emerged from the broken merger with Energy Transfer by addressing most of the funding needs with the dividend cut at WMB and the DRIP program at WPZ, and Barclays believes these were placeholders with more announcements to come that could be catalysts for the Williams complex.
• The firm thinks management wants to eliminate the need for any external funding in 2017, which would position WMB/WPZ to simplify the structure over the next 12 months and reinvent itself as a standard C-corp that internally funds capex with debt capacity and cash flow while using the remaining cash flow to pay out a dividend and/or buy back stock.