By Robb M. Stewart
Canadian Natural Resources bumped up its dividend after seeing increased production in the final quarter of 2025 and predicting an increase to its output this year.
The Canadian energy company, which has a portfolio of assets in North America, the U.K. North Sea and offshore Africa, said its board approved a 6.4% increase to the quarterly payout, which will mark 2026 as the 26th consecutive year the dividend has been increased.
Canadian Natural said it also has adjusted its net debt target as part of its free cash flow allocation policy, which will increase shareholder returns through share buybacks.
The Calgary, Alberta, company recorded fourth-quarter net earnings of 5.3 billion Canadian dollars (US$3.89 billion), or C$2.54 a share, up sharply from C$1.14 billion, or C$0.54, a year earlier.
The results included non-operating income of C$3.59 billion compared with a loss the year before of C$839 million. Stripping out items including risk-management activities, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, and gains and losses on deal-making, adjusted earnings from operations for the latest quarter fell to C$1.71 billion from C$1.98 billion in the last quarter of 2024. Adjusted earnings per share came in at C$0.82, beating the C$0.67 mean estimate of analysts polled by FactSet.
Product sales in the quarter totaled C$10.71 billion, down from C$11.06 billion the prior year, with lower prices weighing on the value of crude and natural gas liquids sales despite increased volumes from oil sands mining. That offset higher realized natural gas prices and sales volumes in North America.
The company's overall production before royalties for the fourth quarter hit about 1.66 million oil-equivalent barrels, comparable with the third quarter and up 13% from a year earlier. Crude oil and natural gas liquids output before royalties for the fourth quarter was a record 1.22 million barrels a day, up 12% on the same period the year prior, while gas production before royalties increased 17% to 2.66 billion cubic feet per day.
Following the recent purchase of assets in the Peace River area of Alberta for about C$765 million, Canadian Natural said it is now targeting production of between 1.615 million and 1.665 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2026. That marks a slight shift higher from the 1.56 million to 1.58 million barrels the company in December said it was aiming for.
Canadian Natural said it will pay out a quarterly cash dividend of C$0.625 a share on April 7 to shareholders of record at the close of business March 20. The company additionally said that when net debt falls below C$16 billion, rather than an earlier goal of C$15 billion, it will direct 75% of the free cash flows generated by its operations to share repurchases.
The company reduced net debt by about C$1.2 billion in the final quarter of last year and C$2.7 billion over 2025. Long-term debt at the end of December stood at C$15.94 billion.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 05, 2026 06:50 ET (11:50 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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