When Tulsa-based Williams Cos. releases its 4th quarter earnings next week, there’ll be plenty of anxious investors watching closely, according to one market website. Seeking Alpha, a crowd-sourced content service for the financial markets is skeptical and leery of what’s happened to trading in Williams shares and in part, blames the development on one of the company’s main customers—Chesapeake Energy in Oklahoma City.
Millions of readers of Seeking Alpha were alerted to the developments Thursday afternoon and urged to avoid the stock with the business model under pressure. Williams is in the midst of a merger with Dallas-based Energy Transfer Equity and while the 4th quarter earnings are about to be released, analysts continue to revise down earnings expectations for 2016 for the company.
Seeking Alpha said “the big hiccup to the deal closing was the recent departure of the CFO from ETE that structured the deal. His sudden departure on Friday after the close caused Williams to plunge on Monday.”
Williams claimed the departure of Jamie Welch had nothing to do with accounting or financial matters. But Seeking Alpha said the clear view is that the Board of Directors is likely unhappy with the decision to move forward with a Williams’ bid that offered so much cash for a heavily indebted firm.
Read full article at Seeking Alpha.
Seeking Alpha
