Big Oil is paying out years of dividends in one day
BNN Bloomberg
Some oil and gas companies are flush with so much cash that they are paying out a full year’s worth of dividends in a single day -- and sometimes more than that.
While reporting second quarter results Thursday, ConocoPhillips informed investors that it will pay them US$1.40 per share in a special dividend on October 14. For context, that’s almost three times its regular quarterly dividend of US$0.46 -- and shareholders get both the regular and the special payout. The shareholder reward comes after a full quarter of crude prices averaging around US$100 a barrel.
Similarly, Tourmaline Oil Corp. will reward its investors after a quarter of bumper natural gas prices with a $2 per share special dividend on August 12 -- worth roughly double a full year’s worth of its regular dividend payments. It’s the third such special dividend from Tourmaline this year.
The energy industry right now is a “broken ATM spewing out cash and there aren’t enough people around to pick it up,” said Rafi Tahmazian, a senior portfolio manager at Canadian investment firm Canoe Financial.
