Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) Stock Rating Upgraded by Morgan Stanley

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) was upgraded by Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $24.00 target price on the pipeline company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 11.32% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on KMI. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Kinder Morgan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $18.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Tudor Pickering raised shares of Kinder Morgan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Nine equities research 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.55.

Kinder Morgan Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE KMI opened at $21.56 on Monday. Kinder Morgan has a 1 year low of $15.89 and a 1 year high of $21.86. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $21.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.66. The firm has a market cap of $47.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.37.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kinder Morgan news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.01, for a total transaction of $2,101,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 916,773 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,261,400.73. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 100,000 shares of Kinder Morgan stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.01, for a total value of $2,101,000.00. Following the completion of 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Sital K. Mody sold 25,169 shares of Kinder Morgan stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.04, for a total transaction of $529,555.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 148,311 shares of company stock valued at $3,121,891 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its position in Kinder Morgan by 3,655.3% in the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 1,427 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Kinder Morgan in the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new stake in Kinder Morgan in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in Kinder Morgan in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Kinder Morgan in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. 62.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.