Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Grows Stock Position in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI - Free Report) by 16.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 389,588 shares of the pipeline company's stock after purchasing an additional 56,147 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $10,675,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in KMI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Kinder Morgan by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 202,846,078 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $5,557,983,000 after buying an additional 1,469,759 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,759,844 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,414,813,000 after acquiring an additional 1,252,609 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan during the 4th quarter valued at about $917,523,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Kinder Morgan by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 13,734,753 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $376,332,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,242 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in Kinder Morgan by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 11,819,777 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $334,381,000 after purchasing an additional 2,650,040 shares in the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on KMI. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective 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. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays upgraded Kinder Morgan from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $31.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Seven research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, Kinder Morgan currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $29.71.

Kinder Morgan Trading Down 3.3 %

Shares of KMI traded down $0.89 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $26.32. The company had a trading volume of 15,394,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,947,110. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.13 and a 1-year 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 has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.08. The stock has a market cap of $58.48 billion, a PE ratio of 22.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.72.

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

Kinder Morgan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a $0.2925 dividend. This represents a $1.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.45%. This is a positive change from Kinder Morgan's previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 30th. Kinder Morgan's dividend payout ratio is presently 100.86%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kinder Morgan news, VP John W. Schlosser sold 75,461 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.65, for a total value of $2,011,035.65. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 220,681 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,881,148.65. The trade was a 25.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 owns 807,652 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $23,219,995. This represents a 2.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 129,461 shares of company stock valued at $3,506,116 over the last quarter. 12.73% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.