(By Mani) El Paso Pipeline Partners LP (NYSE:
EPB) has increased its quarterly distribution by a penny to 51 cents a share, payable on May 15, 2012 to shareholders of record as of May 01, 2012. Shares will trade ex-dividend from April 27.
El Paso, which has paid dividends since 2008, has a current dividend yield of 5.7 percent topping most of the varied classes of treasury, municipal and corporate bonds. The average 5-year dividend yield came in at 4.40 percent.
The U.S. Treasury offers yield of 0.83 percent for 5-year bonds, 1.97 percent for 10-year bonds and 3.14 percent for 30-year bonds.
Meanwhile, 5-year AAA-rated municipal bonds provide a yield of 0.88 percent, while 10-year and 20-year AAA-rated municipal bonds give returns of 1.76 percent and 2.92 percent, respectively.
In addition, AAA-rated corporate bonds offer yields of 1.48 percent, 3.96 percent and 5.02 percent for 5, 10 and 20-year periods, respectively.
The company has been increasing dividends for the past 3 years, and its payout ratio stands at 95 percent. Meanwhile, its debt-to-equity ratio stands at 49 percent, higher than the industry average of 26 percent.
In addition, the company's price to earnings ratio of 17 is lower than the industry average of 48.
However, total return declined 4.35 percent in the last year, after delivering 109.92 percent in the past three years.
El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. is a Delaware limited partnership formed by El Paso Corp. to own and operate natural gas transportation pipelines and storage assets.
Shares of El Paso Pipeline, which has a market cap of about $7 billion, have dropped 9 percent in the last one year. In the past 52-weeks, shares traded between $31.36 and $38.36.