Dallas, Texas 04/22/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI) released its first quarter earnings report for 2014, which showed more cash available to pay dividends of $573 million – a 12% increase on the same quarter last year. The company also hiked its quarterly cash distribution per common unit. The net effect was to make shareholders happy as punch, and Wall St bullish on the energy company’s natural gas prospects.
The Earnings Report
Kinder Morgan said $573 million in cash was available for paying dividends to shareholders for the first quarter of 2014. That’s up 12% from the $513 million they provided to shareholders in the same quarter last year. The quarterly earnings report keeps the company on track to meet its $1.78 billion guidance for total annual dividends for 2014.
The board of directors of Kinder Morgan increased the quarterly dividend per share to $0.42, which represents a 11% increase on the $0.38 first quarter dividend last year and is also higher than the fourth quarter dividend of $0.41 per share.
Statement by CEO Richard D. Kinder
Kinder Morgan CEO Richard D. Kinder said that, “KMI had an excellent first quarter led by continued strong performance at Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE:KMP) and solid results at El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. (NYSE:EPB).”
He added that, “We have identified approximately $16.4 billion in expansion and joint venture investments at the Kinder Morgan companies that we are confident will come to fruition and drive growth at KMI for years to come. We are seeing unprecedented demand for natural gas transportation capacity.”
2014 Outlook For Kinder Morgan
Note that the company also mentions that the growth from KMP and EPB will be somewhat offset by loss of income from the 2013 sales (dropdowns) and still to come sales in 2014 of certain assets to KMP and EPB.
For 2014, the company expects to provide $1.72 per share in dividends, which is an 8% increase on the 2013 declared dividend of $1.60 per share.
