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

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)’s share price rose 0.9% 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 changed hands during 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 research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Kinder Morgan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $22.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Kinder Morgan from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Argus raised Kinder Morgan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, July 19th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Kinder Morgan presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.55.

Insider Transactions at Kinder Morgan

In other Kinder Morgan news, VP Dax Sanders sold 1,729 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total transaction of $36,309.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 307,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,455,589. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 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 stock was sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total value of $36,309.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 307,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,455,589. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sital K. Mody sold 21,413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.25, for a total value of $455,026.25. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 25,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $534,841.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 148,311 shares of company stock valued at $3,121,891. 12.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in KMI. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 32.7% in the second quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 10,534 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $209,000 after buying an additional 2,595 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in Kinder Morgan during the 2nd quarter worth about $8,597,000. RiverFront Investment Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC now owns 31,561 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $627,000 after purchasing an additional 1,858 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 0.6% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 1,428,295 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $28,380,000 after buying an additional 8,078 shares during the period. Finally, HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.52% of the company’s stock.

Kinder Morgan Stock Performance

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 50-day moving average of $21.07 and a 200-day moving average of $19.66. The firm has a market cap of $47.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last announced its 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). Kinder Morgan had a return on equity of 7.89% and a net margin of 15.93%. The business had revenue of $3.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.24 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.19 EPS 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 issued a dividend of $0.2875 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 31st. This represents a $1.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.33%. Kinder Morgan’s payout ratio is presently 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.