Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNQ) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 21st

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, March 7th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 21st will be paid 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 yield of 5.81%. 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 by an average of 28.9% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 23 years. Canadian Natural Resources has a payout ratio of 58.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 $1.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 66.1%.

Canadian Natural Resources Stock Performance

Shares of CNQ opened at $28.33 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.69. Canadian Natural Resources has a 52-week low of $25.62 and a 52-week high of $41.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.00 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on CNQ. Evercore ISI raised Canadian Natural Resources from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Canadian Natural Resources from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Tudor Pickering cut Canadian Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Canadian Natural Resources currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.00.

About Canadian Natural Resources

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).