NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Williams Partners L.P. are up 4% to $52 in late morning trading Monday after the company announced it entered into a merger agreement withaAccess Midstream Partners, L.P. in a deal on Sunday, valued at $50 billion. The companies said the merger is expected to occur by early 2015, and will create a company with expected 2015 adjusted EBITDA of about $5 billion. The Williams Companies, Inc. , based in Tulsa, OK , owns controlling interests in the two master limited partnerships. Must Read: Warren Buffett's 25 Favorite Stocks STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. "The combination of Access Midstream Partners' intense focus on natural gas gathering with Williams Partners' broader service offerings along the value chain is yielding even more robust growth opportunities,"asaid Williams' CEO Alan Armstrong in a statement. Shares of Access Midstream Partnersaare up 3.44% to $62.92 today. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates WILLIAMS PARTNERS LP as a Buy with a ratings score of B-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate WILLIAMS PARTNERS LP (WPZ) a BUY. This is driven by several positive factors, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. Among the primary strengths of the company is its expanding profit margins over time. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: 39.67% is the gross profit margin for WILLIAMS PARTNERS LP which we consider to be strong. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of 14.35% is above that of the industry average. WPZ, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 2.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 8.3%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share. The debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11 is relatively high when compared with the industry average, suggesting a need for better debt level management. To add to this, WPZ has a quick ratio of 0.56, this demonstrates the lack of ability of the company to cover short-term liquidity needs. The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased from the same quarter one year prior. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. In comparison to the other companies in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry and the overall market, WILLIAMS PARTNERS LP's return on equity is significantly below that of the industry average and is below that of the S&P 500. In its most recent trading session, WPZ has closed at a price level that was not very different from its closing price of one year earlier. This is probably due to its weak earnings growth as well as other mixed factors. Despite the decline in its share price over the last year, this stock is still more expensive (when compared to its current earnings) than most other companies in its industry. We feel, however, that other strengths this company displays compensate for this. You can view the full analysis from the report here: WPZ Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.
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