Can Kinder Morgan Maintain Its Dividend Growth & Share Buybacks?
Kinder Morgan, Inc. KMI generates revenues by transporting crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, carbon dioxide and other products through its midstream assets across North America, notably moving nearly 40% of all U.S. natural gas production. The company generates predictable, fee-based cash flows mainly through long-term take-or-pay contracts, where shippers pay to reserve midstream capacity whether utilized or not. This reliable business model ensures steady profitability and positions KMI to consistently return capital to its investors.
Kinder Morgan has consistently rewarded its shareholders by increasing its dividend for nine consecutive years. From 2021 through 2025, the midstream energy player returned $21.7 billion to investors through dividends and share buybacks. For 2026, KMI expects to return $2.7 billion in dividends.
Kinder Morgan plans to enhance its future cash flows through several growth projects. Since the beginning of 2024, KMI has added $10.3 billion worth of initiatives to its backlog, with current ongoing projects valued at $10.1 billion. Roughly 16% of these projects are scheduled to become operational by the end of 2026, while the remaining capital-weighted projects are expected to come online around the first quarter of 2028. These strategic infrastructure additions are designed to drive the free cash flow and enhance shareholder returns over the long term.
Are EPD & ENB Focused on Investor Returns?
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. EPD and Enbridge Inc. ENB generate stable fee-based revenues to reward their investors.
Since its Initial Public Offering, Enterprise Products has returned $63 billion to its unitholders through LP distributions and common unit buybacks. The partnership has also increased its dividend for 27 consecutive years. EPD is advancing $5.3 billion in secured capital projects aimed at enhancing future cash flow and sustaining current distribution levels.
Enbridge has returned $38 billion to its shareholders over the last five years and expects to return $40-$45 billion over the next five years. To increase its future cash flow and sustain shareholder returns, ENB is advancing a $40-billion secured capital backlog across its liquids, natural gas and power franchises.
KMI’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates
Kinder Morgan shares have gained 11.9% over the past year compared with 18.5% growth of the industry.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, KMI trades at a trailing 12-month enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) of 13.97X. This is below the broader industry average of 15.11X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for KMI's 2026 earnings has been unchanged over the past seven days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
KMI currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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See Stocks Now >>This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
