Tulsa-based Williams announced another good quarter as it cited increased cash flow from operations, adjusted earnings per share, available funds from operations and adjusted earnings total.
The company reported net income of $425 million or 35 cents per diluted share while the adjusted EPS was 35 cents, up 35% from the first quarter of 2020.
Williams saw its first quarter cash flow from operations reach $915 million, up $128 million or 16% from the first quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.415 billion which was an increase of $153 million or 12% from the previous year.
The company had record gathering volumes of 13.6 Bcf/d and its debt-to-Adjusted EBITDA at the quarter’s end of 4.2x.
It led Williams president and Chief Executive Officer Alan Armstrong credit the company’s natural gas business strategy.
“Severe winter weather in February boosted marketing margins and upstream sales from unusually high prices, but even excluding these weather effects, our Adjusted EBITDA was up 6 percent, underscoring the stability of our earnings regardless of external factors.”
“We continued our pace of execution in the first quarter, placing Southeastern Trail into full service in early January and progressing on Transco’s Leidy South project to bring additional gas from Appalachia to growing demand centers along the Atlantic Seaboard by next winter. We also filed our FERC application for the Regional Energy Access pipeline expansion, a low-impact project being designed in a manner that is adaptable to future renewable energy sources like clean hydrogen and RNG blending.”
The company now expects 2021 Adjusted EBITDA between $5.2 billion and $5.4 billion and Available Funds from Operations between $3.7 billion and $3.9 billion, both a $100 million midpoint increase from guidance originally issued in February 2021.
As well, the leverage ratio midpoint has been updated to ~4.2x versus ~4.25x prior for year-end 2021. The company is keeping intact 2021 growth capex guidance between $1 billion to $1.2 billion.
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