Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Makes New Investment in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 461,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,183,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in KMI. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 9.2% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 26,871 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 2,274 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank lifted its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 723,774 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $13,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,568 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan in the 1st quarter valued at $525,000. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan in the 1st quarter valued at $6,882,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 258.5% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 1,420,217 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $26,047,000 after acquiring an additional 1,024,096 shares during the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director C Park Shaper sold 690,142 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.75, for a total value of $17,081,014.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,809,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $168,543,985.50. This trade represents a 9.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Amy W. Chronis purchased 2,241 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was acquired 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 $597,235.55. This represents a 10.30 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 12.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on KMI. Bank of America began coverage on Kinder Morgan in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $27.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Kinder Morgan from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Kinder Morgan from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Kinder Morgan from $22.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.67.

Kinder Morgan Stock Performance

Shares of Kinder Morgan stock opened at $28.07 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $25.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.05. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.47 and a 1-year high of $28.81. The company has a market cap of $62.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.62, a PEG ratio of 4.01 and a beta of 0.91.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.25 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current year.

Kinder Morgan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a $0.2875 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.15 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.10%. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 100.88%.

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.