Cabot completed the divestiture of its 20% ownership interest in Meade

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Image: Cabot Oil & Gas sells ownership interest in Meade Pipeline. Photo: courtesy of rawpixel from Pixabay.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation has completed the previously announced divestiture of its 20 percent ownership interest in Meade Pipeline Co LLC (“Meade”) and provided an update on its share repurchase program.

Completion of Meade Divestiture

On November 13, 2019, Cabot completed the divestiture of its 20 percent ownership interest in Meade for $256 million, excluding customary closing adjustments. “Proceeds from this divestiture will allow Cabot to continue to enhance shareholder value through an ongoing opportunistic share repurchase program, while also providing the Company with increased financial strength in a challenging natural gas price environment,” highlighted Dan O. Dinges, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Share Repurchase Program Update

“Subsequent to our third quarter earnings release, we were active in our share repurchase program in anticipation of the proceeds from the Meade divestiture,” stated Dinges. Cabot has repurchased 5.0 million shares at a weighted-average share price of $17.84 during the fourth quarter of 2019. Since reactivating the share repurchase program in the second quarter of 2017, Cabot has reduced its shares outstanding by over 13 percent to 402.9 million shares. The Company currently has 16.0 million remaining shares authorized under its share repurchase program (or approximately four percent of its current shares outstanding). Dinges added, “Year-to-date, we have returned over $580 million of capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, representing over 110 percent of the midpoint of our free cash flow guidance for the year and far exceeding our target of returning at least 50 percent of annual free cash flow to shareholders. We plan to remain active with our opportunistic share repurchases, which are supported by our expectation for continued free cash flow generation, even in the lows of the natural gas price cycle.”

Source: Company Press Release