Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) Reaches New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) hit a new 52-week high on Monday after Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $30.00 to $32.00. Royal Bank Of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the stock. Kinder Morgan traded as high as $33.75 and last traded at $33.7370, with a volume of 2330734 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $33.27.

Several other research firms also recently commented on KMI. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Kinder Morgan in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Kinder Morgan from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Freedom Capital upgraded Kinder Morgan from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Kinder Morgan presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.54.

Insider Activity at Kinder Morgan

In other Kinder Morgan news, VP Anthony B. Ashley sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.95, for a total value of $255,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 100,146 shares in the company, valued at $3,199,664.70. This represents a 7.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP John W. Schlosser sold 6,166 shares of Kinder Morgan stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.09, for a total value of $185,534.94. Following the sale, the vice president owned 195,038 shares in the company, valued at $5,868,693.42. This trade represents a 3.06% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 46,498 shares of company stock valued at $1,382,115 in the last ninety days. 12.73% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Kinder Morgan

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,132,125,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 431.9% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,569,082 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $185,971,000 after buying an additional 5,333,986 shares during the last quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in Kinder Morgan during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $138,477,000. Zimmer Partners LP lifted its position in Kinder Morgan by 177.8% during the 3rd quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 6,070,100 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $171,845,000 after acquiring an additional 3,885,000 shares during the period. Finally, 59 North Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 54.5% in the 2nd quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 10,597,380 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $311,563,000 after purchasing an additional 3,739,398 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.52% of the company’s stock.

Kinder Morgan Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $29.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $27.90. The firm has a market cap of $75.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.70.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 21st. The pipeline company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.02. Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 18.04% and a return on equity of 9.02%. The company had revenue of $4.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.30 EPS. Kinder Morgan’s revenue was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Investors of record on Monday, February 2nd were given a $0.2925 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 2nd. This represents a $1.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.40%.

About Kinder Morgan

Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) is a large energy infrastructure company that owns and operates an extensive network of pipelines and terminals across North America. Its core activities center on the transportation, storage and handling of energy products, including natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, refined petroleum products and carbon dioxide. The company’s assets include long-haul and gathering pipelines, storage facilities, and multi-modal terminals that serve producers, refiners, utilities and industrial customers.

Kinder Morgan’s operations deliver midstream services such as pipeline transportation, terminaling, storage and related logistics and maintenance.