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

Shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) shot 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. 974,407 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 93% from the average session volume of 13,739,219 shares. The stock had previously closed at $21.14.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Kinder Morgan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Kinder Morgan from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.55.

Insider Transactions at Kinder Morgan

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kinder Morgan

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of KMI. Gilbert & Cook Inc. lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 31,525 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $556,000 after acquiring an additional 682 shares during the period. SCP Investment LP bought a new stake in Kinder Morgan in the 4th quarter worth approximately $413,000. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in Kinder Morgan by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 56,541 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $997,000 after buying an additional 3,285 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan during the 4th quarter valued at $519,000. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 56.4% in the 4th quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 80,366 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,418,000 after buying an additional 28,988 shares during the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Kinder Morgan Stock Up 0.9 %

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

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

Kinder Morgan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 31st were given a dividend of $0.2875 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 31st. This represents a $1.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.39%. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 104.55%.

Kinder Morgan Company Profile

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.