Kinder Morgan's quarterly dividend is 2% above a year earlier as adjusted EBITDA rises 9%

Kinder Morgan's board approved a third-quarter dividend of $0.2975 a share, 2% above the $0.2925 declared a year earlier, as the pipeline operator reported net income attributable to the company of $764 million, adjusted EBITDA of $2.18 billion and an expansion backlog of $14.4 billion, all on a preliminary, unaudited basis.

The distribution equals $1.19 on an annualized basis and is payable November 16, 2026, to stockholders of record at the close of business on November 2, 2026. Kinder Morgan presented the quarter as an all-time record for a third quarter, and the dividend is the smallest piece of that story: the payout is 2% above the third quarter of 2025 while adjusted EPS is 21% higher.

Earnings growth outpaces the dividend

Net income attributable to Kinder Morgan was $764 million, against $628 million in the third quarter of 2025, a 22% increase. Adjusted net income, which excludes certain items, was $792 million versus $648 million, also 22% higher. Earnings per share were $0.34 against $0.28, up 21%, and adjusted EPS was $0.35 against $0.29, also up 21%. Revenue rose to $4.53 billion from $4.15 billion, and cash provided by operations increased to $1.59 billion from $1.41 billion.

The comparison the release makes is with the third quarter of 2025, not with the second quarter of 2026. Nine-month declared dividends of $0.8925 a share equal 74% of nine-month adjusted EPS of $1.20, and the release states no payout policy or coverage target.

Backlog rises $4.7 billion to $14.4 billion on $5.4 billion of additions

Kim Dang, Kinder Morgan's chief executive, said: “This quarter we increased our expansion project backlog to $14.4 billion, including the largest natural gas project backlog in company history at $13.2 billion.” The total rose $4.7 billion from the second quarter, reflecting $5.4 billion of additions net of $700 million of projects placed in service. More than 75% of the backlog supports power generation and local distribution company demand, and $13.7 billion of it represents stable, primarily take-or-pay cash flows that the company expects to earn at an aggregate first-full-year Project EBITDA multiple of about 5.7 times.

The two additions named in the release are Southern Natural Gas's Southeast Connector, designed for up to 2.6 Bcf/d over roughly 470 miles with a Kinder Morgan share of about $3.1 billion and in-service phases beginning in the fourth quarter of 2030, and NGPL's Permian Link, a $4.2 billion project (about $1.6 billion net to Kinder Morgan) designed for roughly 2.8 Bcf/d across about 434 miles to serve power generation for an A-rated hyperscaler, due in the third quarter of 2030.

$141 million of certain items turn Products Pipelines' gain into a decline

Segment earnings before DD&A at Products Pipelines fell to $172 million from $288 million, but adjusted segment EBDA rose to $313 million from $288 million. Total refined products volumes slipped 3% to 1.6 million barrels a day from 1,652, and crude and condensate volumes fell 11% to 410,000 barrels a day from 459 as Bakken gathering declined and the Double H pipeline converted to natural gas liquids service. The $141 million gap is $138 million of accruals for legal, environmental and other costs plus $3 million of risk-management activity, both of which the release treats as certain items; the underlying quarter improved on commodity pricing, while the reported line did not.

On a reported basis, Natural Gas Pipelines segment EBDA rose to $1.5 billion from $1.39 billion, Terminals to $385 million from $274 million, and the CO2 segment to $172 million from $135 million. The Terminals figure includes the net gain on the sale of three dry bulk terminals in Tampa, Florida.

Guidance tilts favorable while free cash flow thins

The 2026 budget called for net income attributable to Kinder Morgan of $3.1 billion, adjusted EPS of $1.36, declared dividends of $1.19 a share and adjusted EBITDA of $8.6 billion with year-end leverage of 3.8 times. Management now expects to be more than 6% favorable to budget on adjusted EBITDA and more than 13% favorable on adjusted EPS, and to end the year at 3.6 times.

Cash generation is the weaker line. Capital expenditures rose to $1.05 billion from $793 million, free cash flow fell to $545 million from $621 million, and free cash flow after dividends was negative $120 million against a smaller shortfall a year earlier; for the first nine months it was $226 million against $69 million. Net debt stood at $32.23 billion, with leverage of 3.5 times at the low end of the company's target range. The release gives no fourth-quarter guidance line items and no comparison with analyst estimates, so the size of any beat against expectations cannot be established from it; what it does show is a company spending more on expansions while its quarterly dividend sits 2% above a year earlier.