Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI) will raise its quarterly dividend by 60 percent to $0.20 per share in April 2018. The new dividend yield for KMI is 4.9%. Its the first dividend hike since October 2015. Kinder Morgan cut its dividend in 2016.

The new dividend is payable on May 15, 2018, to common stockholders of record as of the close of business on April 30, 2018. This is a 60 percent increase from last quarter’s dividend, and is consistent with the plan KMI announced during the summer of 2017. KMI continues to expect to use cash in excess of dividend payments to fully fund growth investments, further strengthening its balance sheet.

“The board delivered on our commitment made in mid-2017 with the $0.20 dividend we are declaring today,” said Richard D. Kinder, Executive Chairman. “Even with the substantial dividend increase, we still expect to internally fund all of our growth capital with some excess remaining. In the first quarter, we used some of that excess to repurchase shares. In addition, we remain committed to continuing the important work of strengthening our balance sheet and attaining a Net Debt-to-Adjusted EBITDA ratio of at or below five times. For the foreseeable future, we expect to continue funding all growth capital through operating cash flows with no need to access capital markets for growth capital,” Kinder added.

Kinder Morgan, Inc. is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America. It owns an interest in or operates approximately 85,000 miles of pipelines and 152 terminals. KMI’s pipelines transport natural gas, refined petroleum products, crude oil, condensate, CO(2) and other products, and its terminals transload and store petroleum products, ethanol and chemicals, and handle such products as steel, coal and petroleum coke. It is also a leading producer of CO(2) that we and others use for enhanced oil recovery projects primarily in the Permian basin.