WESPAC Advisors LLC Buys New Position in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

WESPAC Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 33,190 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $947,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of KMI. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Kinder Morgan by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 202,846,078 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $5,557,983,000 after buying an additional 1,469,759 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Kinder Morgan by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,759,844 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,414,813,000 after purchasing an additional 1,252,609 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $917,523,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 20,942,841 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $573,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,608,499 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 14,711,722 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $403,101,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,576 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.52% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.26, for a total value of $508,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president owned 771,652 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,806,885.52. This represents a 2.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 12.73% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KMI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of Kinder Morgan in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Kinder Morgan from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, Cowen assumed coverage on Kinder Morgan in a research report on Monday. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $30.40.

Kinder Morgan Stock Performance

KMI traded up $0.06 during trading on Friday, reaching $27.85. 11,279,457 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,960,972. The stock has a market cap of $61.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.01, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $27.91 and a 200 day moving average of $27.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 52 week low of $19.68 and a 52 week high of $31.48.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.34. The firm had revenue of $4.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.02 billion. Kinder Morgan had a return on equity of 8.11% and a net margin of 16.67%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Increases Dividend

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

Kinder Morgan 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.