Cornerstone Advisors LLC Has $5 Million Stock Holdings in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Key Points

• Cornerstone Advisors LLC increased its stake in Kinder Morgan by 26.2%, acquiring an additional 36,400 shares and bringing its total holdings to 175,184 shares worth approximately $4.998 million.
• Analysts have set a new consensus price target for Kinder Morgan at $31.13, with several firms issuing "buy" or "neutral" ratings on the stock.
• Kinder Morgan has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.2925 per share, reflecting an annualized rate of $1.17 and a yield of 4.2%.

Cornerstone Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI - Free Report) by 26.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 175,184 shares of the pipeline company's stock after acquiring an additional 36,400 shares during the period. Cornerstone Advisors LLC's holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $4,998,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 14.1% during the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 6,442,093 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $183,793,000 after purchasing an additional 794,388 shares during the last quarter. Bridgewealth Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $377,000. Burney Co. grew its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 133.5% in the first quarter. Burney Co. now owns 442,044 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $12,612,000 after acquiring an additional 252,736 shares during the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc increased its position in Kinder Morgan by 402.5% during the first quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 39,393 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,124,000 after acquiring an additional 31,553 shares during the period. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its stake in Kinder Morgan by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 389,588 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $10,675,000 after purchasing an additional 56,147 shares during the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on KMI shares. Morgan Stanley set a $34.00 price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $32.00 price objective (up from $31.00) on shares of Kinder Morgan in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Kinder Morgan from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $31.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $31.13.

Kinder Morgan Price Performance

KMI traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $26.78. The company had a trading volume of 17,704,609 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,759,392. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.56 and a twelve month high of $31.48. The company has a market capitalization of $59.50 billion, a PE ratio of 21.95, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.68. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $27.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.49.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.28. Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 17.06% and a return on equity of 8.31%. The business had revenue of $4.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.75 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. Kinder Morgan's revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st will be given a $0.2925 dividend. This represents a $1.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 31st. Kinder Morgan's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 95.90%.

Insider Transactions at Kinder Morgan

In other Kinder Morgan news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.26, for a total transaction of $508,680.00. Following the transaction, the president directly owned 771,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,806,885.52. This represents a 2.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sital K. Mody sold 45,549 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.96, for a total transaction of $1,273,550.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 109,715 shares of company stock valued at $3,081,245. 12.73% of the stock is currently owned by 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.