Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Kinder Morgan, Inc. has received a recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from 16 research firms, with an average target price of $31.13 for the stock.
• Insider selling activity included VP Sital K. Mody who sold over 45,000 shares at $27.96 each, and CFO David Patrick Michels sold 40,000 shares at $28.19 each, indicating significant movements in executive holdings.
• The company reported Q2 earnings of $0.28 per share, meeting analysts' expectations, while revenue grew by 13.2% year-over-year to $4.04 billion.

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the sixteen research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $31.1333.

Several analysts have commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Barclays reaffirmed 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. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kinder Morgan

In other news, 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO David Patrick Michels sold 40,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.19, for a total value of $1,127,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 159,428 shares in the company, valued at $4,494,275.32. This trade represents a 20.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 109,715 shares of company stock worth $3,081,245. Corporate insiders own 12.73% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kinder Morgan

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 14.1% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 6,442,093 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $183,793,000 after buying an additional 794,388 shares in the last quarter. Bridgewealth Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in Kinder Morgan in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $377,000. Burney Co. lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 133.5% in the 1st quarter. Burney Co. now owns 442,044 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $12,612,000 after buying an additional 252,736 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 402.5% in the 1st quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 39,393 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,124,000 after buying an additional 31,553 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 16.8% in 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 buying an additional 56,147 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.52% of the company's stock.

Kinder Morgan Stock Up 0.5%

KMI opened at $26.89 on Monday. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $27.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.68. Kinder Morgan has a one year low of $20.56 and a one year high of $31.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.78.

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

Kinder Morgan Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.2925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $1.17 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.4%. Kinder Morgan's payout ratio is 95.90%.

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.

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