10.5%-Yielding Kimbell Royalty Has Never Missed a Payout
The war in Iran and soaring crude and gas prices have resulted in energy becoming the top-performing sector over the last month, three months, and six months, as well as year to date. This was a sharp turnaround from 2025, which saw crude prices trend lower for much of the year.
Energy stocks experienced a big near-term boost after crude neared $120.00 per barrel. Crude oil prices retraced from those lofty levels after President Donald Trump said that the war should end “very soon.” At the same time, tensions persist in the Middle East, with Israel indicating that it will not only continue to strike Iran but would also intensify its fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
It wouldn’t take much for crude oil prices to rip higher again. At the same time, the war in Iran will eventually come to an end, and the crude oil price swings will stabilize. As a result, some oil and gas stocks that did well during the war will probably experience a pullback.
This also means that it might be a good idea to take a closer look at great oil and gas stocks that did well before the conflict. And that’s where Kimbell Royalty Partners LP (NYSE:KRP) comes in.
About the Company
Kimbell Royalty Partners and its subsidiaries are engaged in acquiring and owning mineral and royalty interest in oil and natural gas properties in the U.S. (Source: Spring 2026 Investor Presentation, Kimbell Royalty Partners, February 26, 2026.)
Kimbell has interests in over 133,000 gross wells across 17 million gross acres in the U.S., including the highest growth shale basins and stable conventional fields.
Roughly 98% of all onshore rigs in the Lower 48 are in counties where the company holds mineral interest positions.
As a limited partnership (LP), Kimbell doesn’t sink money into new wells, instead, it has zero capital requirements, which in turn support its resilient free cash flow. The LP lets its customers do all the heavy lifting.
Kimbell receives an upfront cash bonus payment and, customarily, a 20% to 25% royalty on production revenues. In return, the LP delivers the right to explore and develop with the operator bearing 100% of costs for a specified lease term.
Its top operators include Exxon Mobile Corp (NYSE:XOM), Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY), and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP).
And, thanks to Kimbell Royalty’s high-quality, diversified asset base, with current technology, the partnership has more than 12+ years of drilling inventory across its major properties.
Kimbell is always growing, too. Since its 2017 initial public offering (IPO), the LP has completed over $2.0 billion in merger and acquisition transactions, grown run-rate average daily production by over 8x, and returned 75% of its $18.00/unit IPO price through quarterly cash distributions.
2025: Another Outstanding Year
Kimbell Royalty Partners has a history of reporting strong financial results, including record 2024 results, with that momentum carrying into 2025. Fourth-quarter income came in at $24.8 million, up from a fourth-quarter 2024 net loss of $39.26 million.
The LP’s net income attributable to shareholders was $19.1 million, up from a fourth-quarter 2024 net loss of $37.79 million.
Its consolidated adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) climbed 8.5% to $64.8 million.
During the fourth quarter, Kimbell’s daily run-rate production was 25,627 barrels of oil equivalent; exceeding the midpoint of previous guidance. Overall activity remains robust with 85 active rigs drilling, representing 16% of market share of U.S. land rig count.
The company’s proved developed reserves increased by roughly eight percent on an annual basis to a record 73 million barrels of oil. This is a result of ongoing development bolstered by acquired reserves.
Commenting on the results, Robert Ravnaas, Kimbell’s chairman and chief executive officer, said, “2025 was another outstanding year for Kimbell. As evidenced by our track record of ongoing acquisition activity, we expect to continue our role as a major consolidator in the highly fragmented U.S. oil and natural gas royalty sector, which we estimate to be over $650 billion in size.”
Ravnaas added, “We believe that we are still in the early stages of this consolidation and will actively seek out targets that fit within our acquisition profile. We are very excited about the opportunities to expand in the future and to deliver unitholder value for years to come.”
Q4 Dividend of $0.37/Share
Kimbell’s quarterly payouts fluctuate based on supply/demand and pricing, and earnings. That said, it has not missed a quarterly distribution since it went public in 2017. (Source: “Distribution History,” Kimbell Royalty Partners LP, last accessed March 9, 2026.)
For example, the LP paid out $0.47 per unit in the first quarter of 2025, $0.38 per unit in the second quarter, and $0.35 per unit in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, KRP stock paid out $0.37 per unit, or $1.48 on an annual basis, for a forward dividend yield of 10.35%.
Despite the inherent volatility in its payout, royalty companies like Kimbell provide far superior cash yields to the precious metals and real estate investment trust (REIT) sectors or the S&P 500.
Strong Upside Potential with KRP Stock?
Typically, a high dividend yield is tied to a stock/unit price that is down. That isn’t the case with Kimbell Royalty Partners though. KRP stock’s ultra-high dividend yield isn’t a fluke. Its trailing average dividend yield is 10.98% with a five-year average dividend yield of 10.56%.
Moreover, since the beginning of the year, the stock has been outperforming the broader market, up 20.5% year to date. For comparison’s sake, the S&P 500 is down 0.2% since the start of the year.
Wall Street expects KRP to continue to trend higher over the coming quarters, with analysts providing a 12-month share price target range of $15.25 to $16.00. This points to potential upside of approximately seven percent to 12.5%.
Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com
The Lowdown on Kimbell Royalty Partners LP
Whether we’re facing geopolitical tensions or not, Kimbell Royalty Partners LP is a great exploration and production company with a diversified, high-margin, and shallow decline portfolio of assets with require zero capital requirements.
This helps provide Kimbell with reliable cash flow, which it uses to provide a reliable, high-yield distribution. In fact, the LP has returned approximately 75% of its $18.00/unit IPO price through cash distributions since 2017.