Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) Stock Price Up 0.9% on Analyst Upgrade

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)’s share price was up 0.9% during trading on Monday after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating. Morgan Stanley now has a $24.00 price target on the stock. Kinder Morgan traded as high as $21.46 and last traded at $21.34. Approximately 974,407 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 93% from the average daily volume of 13,739,219 shares. The stock had previously closed at $21.14.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays boosted their target price on Kinder Morgan from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Tudor Pickering raised Kinder Morgan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.55.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Dax Sanders sold 1,729 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total value of $36,309.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 307,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,455,589. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, VP Dax Sanders sold 1,729 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total value of $36,309.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 307,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,455,589. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Thomas A. Martin sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.01, for a total value of $2,101,000.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 916,773 shares in the company, valued at $19,261,400.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 148,311 shares of company stock valued at $3,121,891. 12.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kinder Morgan

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of KMI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 15.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,888,911 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,665,963,000 after purchasing an additional 27,254,172 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter worth $409,063,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 1.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 16,904,252 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $335,891,000 after buying an additional 257,658 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in Kinder Morgan by 23.6% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 11,130,639 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $204,319,000 after buying an additional 2,125,648 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 10,717,452 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $196,558,000 after acquiring an additional 272,648 shares in the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Kinder Morgan Trading Up 0.9 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market cap of $47.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $21.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.60.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The pipeline company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.26 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $3.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.13 billion. Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 15.93% and a return on equity of 7.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.24 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.19 EPS for the current year.

Kinder Morgan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st were given a dividend of $0.2875 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 31st. This represents a $1.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.39%. Kinder Morgan’s payout ratio is 104.55%.

About Kinder Morgan

Kinder Morgan, Inc operates as an energy infrastructure company primarily in North America. The company operates through Natural Gas Pipelines, Products Pipelines, Terminals, and CO2 segments. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment owns and operates interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline, and storage systems; natural gas gathering systems and natural gas processing and treating facilities; natural gas liquids fractionation facilities and transportation systems; and liquefied natural gas gasification, liquefaction, and storage facilities.