Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) Increases Dividend to $0.41 Per Share

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, March 7th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be given a dividend of 0.4117 per share by the oil and gas producer on Friday, April 4th. This represents a $1.65 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 21st. This is a 6.1% increase from Canadian Natural Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39.

Canadian Natural Resources has increased its dividend payment by an average of 28.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 24 consecutive years. Canadian Natural Resources has a dividend payout ratio of 57.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Canadian Natural Resources to earn $2.48 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.63 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.7%.

Canadian Natural Resources Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE CNQ opened at $29.96 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.30. The firm has a market cap of $62.92 billion, a PE ratio of 11.63 and a beta of 1.48. Canadian Natural Resources has a 1 year low of $25.62 and a 1 year high of $41.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.53.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Canadian Natural Resources in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Tudor Pickering downgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Canadian Natural Resources presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Company Profile

Canadian Natural Resources Limited acquires, explores for, develops, produces, markets, and sells crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs). The company offers light and medium crude oil, primary heavy crude oil, Pelican Lake heavy crude oil, bitumen (thermal oil), and synthetic crude oil (SCO).