Williams Partners L.P. (WPZ - Free Report) reported first-quarter 2017 earnings of 68 cents per limited partner unit, which handily beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 35 cents. The company had inured a loss of 25 cents per limited partner unit in the prior-year quarter. The improvement was mainly driven by lower selling, general and administrative expenses as well as lesser product costs.

Quarterly total revenue increased 19.9% year over year to $1.98 billion from $1.65 billion. The top line met the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.98 billion.

Williams Partners' distributable cash flow (DCF) attributable to partnership operations in the reported quarter was $752 million as against $739 million in the year-ago quarter. Recently, the partnership announced a regular quarterly cash distribution of 60 cents per unit.

Segment Performance

Consolidated adjusted segment profit was $1,117.0 million, up 5.4% from the year-ago level of $1,060.0 million.

Northeast G&P: The segment reported profits of $227 million as against $225 million in first-quarter 2016. The improvement was primarily driven by lower selling, general and administrative expenses.

Atlantic-Gulf: The segment reported profits of $453 million compared with $405 million in the year-ago quarter. This was primarily due to higher transportation fee revenues from offshore expansion projects completed during 2016 and new Transco projects - Rock Springs and Gulf Trace.

West: Segmental profit was $389 million as against $400 million a year ago. The decrease was due to lower fee revenues from the Barnett shale owing to lower volumes.

NGL & Petchem Services: The segment reported profits of $49 million compared with $30 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Williams Partners LP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Williams Partners LP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | Williams Partners LP Quote

Zacks Rank

Williams Partners carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks from the same space are SunCoke Energy, Inc. (SXC - Free Report) , Enerplus Corporation (ERF - Free Report) and Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. (BXE - Free Report) . All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

SunCoke Energy posted a positive earnings surprise of 120.0% in the preceding quarter. The company beat estimates in two of the four trailing quarters with an average negative earnings surprise of 35.78%.

Enerplus Corporation posted a positive earnings surprise of 66.67% in the preceding year quarter.

Bellatrix Exploration posted a positive earnings surprise of 240.00% in the preceding quarter. It surpassed estimates in three of the four trailing quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 58.54%.