06:01 AM EDT, 04/18/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Kinder Morgan ( KMI ) late Wednesday reported mixed first-quarter results with revenue trailing market expectations, although the pipeline operator opted to keep its full-year earnings outlook unchanged.

Adjusted earnings advanced 13% to $0.34 a share for the March quarter, in line with the Capital IQ-polled consensus. Revenue declined to $3.84 billion from $3.89 billion the year before, missing the Street's view for $4.38 billion.

"The company got off to a strong start this quarter on increased financial contributions from our natural gas pipelines, products pipelines and terminals business segments," Chief Executive Kim Dang said in a statement. "Our project backlog at the end of the first quarter was $3.3 billion, up from $3 billion at year-end 2023."

Profit in the natural gas pipelines business climbed to $1.52 billion from $1.43 billion in the prior-year period, primarily due to higher margins realized on storage assets, volume gains on gathering assets and contributions from the company's acquisition of NextEra Energy Partner's (NEP) South Texas midstream assets, according to President Tom Martin. Natural gas transport and gathering volumes inclined 2% and 17%, respectively.

Products pipelines segment earnings grew to $293 million from $251 million, due to "higher rates on existing assets and contributions from new capital projects," Martin said. Terminals segment earnings rose, while carbon dioxide profit dipped as a result of lower sales volume, with price movements across the firm's three commodities roughly offsetting one another, the president added.

For full-year 2024, Kinder Morgan ( KMI ) continues to forecast per-share earnings of $1.22, reflecting annual growth of 15%. The Street is looking for GAAP EPS of $1.25. The company also reiterated its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization guidance of $8.16 billion for the year.

"We expect demand for natural gas to grow substantially between now and 2030, led by more than a doubling of demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and a more than 50% increase in exports to Mexico," Dang said. "Although natural gas prices are expected to be significantly below budget for the full year, given that we have modest direct commodity price exposure and have seen strong execution across our businesses, there's no change to our full-year budget guidance."

The company's board of directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.2875 per share, representing a 2% increase from the 2023 quarter. The dividend is payable May 15 to shareholders of record as of April 30.