Goldman Moves Williams To Conviction Buy (WMB)

Goldman Sachs is upgrading shares of Williams Companies, Inc. WMB to Conviction Buy with a a $38 price target on shares. In a note to clients, Goldman writes, "We move Williams (WMB) to Conviction Buy from Neutral with 28% upside to our new $38 12-month target price. We believe strong performance from recent pure-play General Partner (GP) IPOs like Targa (TRGP, Not Covered) imply significant SOTP valuation read-across for companies with large GP stakes. We raise target prices by 30%-31% on average for WMB, ONEOK (OKE), and El Paso (EP) on revised target multiples to reflect this positive read-across, though differences in strategy, valuation, and catalysts keep us Neutral-rated on EP and OKE. We downgrade Spectra (SE) to Neutral from Buy and remove Enbridge (ENB.TO) from the Conviction List, though it remains a Buy." Shares of WMB are up 8 cents in pre-market trading to $30.45, a gain of 0.26%.