“Our continued execution and capital discipline have positioned us to begin returning additional capital to shareholders,” Crescent Point president and CEO Craig Bryksa said in a release Monday, announcing the higher dividend and a larger capital budget for 2022 year after an anaemic budget in 2021. “We are committed to a model that returns capital to shareholders while also generating returns through debt-adjusted per share growth.
Analysts expect additional oilpatch players to announce dividend increases this week at the Peters & Co. investment conference in Toronto and in the coming months. High oil and gas prices have allowed companies such as Crescent Point to repay debt at an accelerated rate this year and those companies are now shifting their focus to spending their money on paying their shareholders.
“Considering simple payout ratio was regularly north of 20 per cent for several years, we believe there is considerably potential for further dividend increases should oil pricing hold,” Petrucci wrote.