Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) reported Q3 EPS of $0.21, in-line with the analyst estimate of $0.21. Revenue for the quarter came in at $3.52 billion versus the consensus estimate of $3.56 billion.

“The third quarter was a momentous one for our company,” Chief Executive Officer Steve Kean noted. “We closed the Trans Mountain transaction on August 31 and then made a final investment decision on the Permian Highway Pipeline Project less than a week later. Our three-year campaign to strengthen KMI’s balance sheet reached an important milestone as we ended the quarter with an Adjusted Net Debt-to-Adjusted EBITDA ratio of approximately 4.6 times. Consistent with that achievement, all three ratings agencies have provided formal notification that our credit ratings are on positive outlook for an upgrade, and S&P announced they expect to raise our rating in January.”

Kean continued, “We are maintaining our planned substantial dividend increase and we have also revised our long-term leverage target from at or below 5.0 times to around 4.5 times, which is consistent with where we ended the quarter.”

KMI President Kim Dang said, “This quarter reinforced the importance of our interconnected natural gas transportation network as that segment accounted for a substantial portion of the growth in segment earnings versus the third quarter of 2017. We continue to benefit from strategically positioned fee-based assets that generate predictable cash flows and a network that provides our customers with unrivaled flexibility. We also made good progress during the third quarter on the Gulf Coast Express Project and began work on the Permian Highway Pipeline Project. Both of those projects take advantage of the unparalleled market access afforded by our existing network.”

Dang continued, “Once again we had very good commercial and operating performance. Our third quarter earnings per common share of $0.31 includes the one-time gain on the sale of the Trans Mountain system. We achieved distributable cash flow (DCF) of $0.49 per common share in the quarter, representing 4 percent growth over the third quarter of 2017. This resulted in nearly $650 million of excess DCF above our declared dividend.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Kinder Morgan (KMI) click here.