Empirical Finance LLC Purchases 1,325 Shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 67,428 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 1,325 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $1,489,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Kinder Morgan by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 341,054 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,534,000 after buying an additional 22,151 shares in the last quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC now owns 87,339 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,929,000 after acquiring an additional 2,245 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Kinder Morgan by 10.2% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 87,736 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,938,000 after acquiring an additional 8,120 shares in the last quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC increased its stake in Kinder Morgan by 1.1% in the third quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC now owns 691,613 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $15,278,000 after acquiring an additional 7,289 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp raised its position in Kinder Morgan by 143.6% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 1,352 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 797 shares in the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on KMI. Morgan Stanley set a $26.00 target price on Kinder Morgan in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Argus raised shares of Kinder Morgan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.36.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director C Park Shaper sold 690,142 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.75, for a total value of $17,081,014.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,809,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $168,543,985.50. This trade represents a 9.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Amy W. Chronis bought 2,241 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $24.89 per share, for a total transaction of $55,778.49. Following the transaction, the director now owns 23,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $597,235.55. The trade was a 10.30 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 12.64% of the company’s stock.

Kinder Morgan Price Performance

KMI stock opened at $27.27 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $60.58 billion, a PE ratio of 23.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.91. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $23.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.46. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a one year low of $16.47 and a one year high of $27.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.46.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.05 billion. Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 16.76% and a return on equity of 7.87%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.25 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were issued a $0.2875 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.22%. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.88%.

Kinder Morgan 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.