Canadian Natural Resources Limited Declares Quarterly Dividend of C$0.62 (NYSE:CNQ)

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.625 per share by the oil and gas producer on Friday, October 2nd. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th.

Canadian Natural Resources has increased its dividend by an average of 0.2%annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 24 years. Canadian Natural Resources has a dividend payout ratio of 75.1% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Equities analysts expect Canadian Natural Resources to earn $3.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.81 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.7%.

Canadian Natural Resources Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of Canadian Natural Resources stock traded up $0.76 on Thursday, hitting $45.51. The company had a trading volume of 7,150,429 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,999,620. Canadian Natural Resources has a 1 year low of $29.30 and a 1 year high of $51.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $43.61 and a 200-day moving average of $44.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $94.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.59 and a beta of 0.46.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.15. Canadian Natural Resources had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 22.04%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Canadian Natural Resources will post 3.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNQ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank upgraded Canadian Natural Resources to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Desjardins upgraded Canadian Natural Resources to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Raymond James Financial raised Canadian Natural Resources from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Company Profile

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE: CNQ) is a Calgary-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Established in the early 1970s and publicly listed in Canada and the United States, the company is principally engaged in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its asset base spans conventional and unconventional reservoirs and includes oil sands mining and in-situ thermal projects, midstream processing and upgrading capacity, and related field operations.

The company’s operations are concentrated in Western Canada, where it develops heavy crude, bitumen from oil sands and conventional light crude and natural gas resources.