Castleark Management LLC Acquires New Stake in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Castleark Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 20,660 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $566,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan during the fourth quarter worth about $917,523,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Kinder Morgan in the 4th quarter valued at about $157,804,000. Blackstone Inc. grew its position in Kinder Morgan by 435.0% in the 4th quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 4,358,263 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $119,416,000 after buying an additional 3,543,670 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in Kinder Morgan in the 4th quarter valued at about $87,729,000. Finally, Amundi grew its position in Kinder Morgan by 28.9% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 11,819,777 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $334,381,000 after buying an additional 2,650,040 shares in the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on KMI shares. Barclays upgraded shares of Kinder Morgan from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $31.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of Kinder Morgan in a report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Kinder Morgan has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $29.79.

Kinder Morgan Price Performance

Shares of KMI traded up $0.54 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $27.88. 12,400,577 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,978,612. The company has a market cap of $61.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.74. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.83 and a fifty-two week high of $31.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm's fifty day moving average is $27.21 and its 200 day moving average is $27.40.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.34. Kinder Morgan had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 17.31%. The company had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.02 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were paid a dividend of $0.2925 per share. This represents a $1.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.20%. This is a positive change from Kinder Morgan's previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 30th. Kinder Morgan's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.86%.

Insider Activity

In related news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of Kinder Morgan stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.75, for a total value of $517,500.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 807,652 shares of the company's stock, valued at $23,219,995. The trade was a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 54,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,492,740. 12.73% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.