UPDATE: Credit Suisse Assumes Coverage on Williams Companies with Outperform Rating, Lowers PT on Positive Outlook

In a report published Tuesday, Credit Suisse analyst Abhiram Rajendran assumed coverage on

with an Outperform rating and $44.00 price target, down from $48.00. In the report, Credit Suisse noted, “Despite the downward revisions at WPZ's Northeast G&P segment and the Canadian NGL/Petchem asset dropdown to WPZ not paying cash through 2015, WMB should continue to see 20+% dividend growth through 2015. Longer-term dividend outlook is also solid with multiple drivers incl. cash coming back from the current NGL/Petchem dropdown and future drop-downs options (plus the ACMP stake). We are solidly lowering our 12-month TP for WMB from $48 to $44, but continue to expect the stock to Outperform the group. The near-term focus is on the Bluegrass project (Jan/Feb timeframe)--it's a close call vs the competing project, but a possible game-changer to WMB in our opinion (adds ~$3-4/share of value to our target). Williams Companies closed on Tuesday at $38.40.