Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) Shares Up 1% – Still a Buy?

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) traded up 1% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $29.58 and last traded at $29.40. 2,905,565 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 11,129,002 shares. The stock had previously closed at $29.12.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on KMI. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Kinder Morgan in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $27.00 price target on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Morgan Stanley set a $26.00 target price on shares of Kinder Morgan in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Kinder Morgan from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Kinder Morgan has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.67.

Kinder Morgan Stock Up 0.9 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.46. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $65.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.94.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $3.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.05 billion. Kinder Morgan had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 16.76%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director C Park Shaper sold 690,142 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.75, for a total value of $17,081,014.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,809,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $168,543,985.50. This represents a 9.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Amy W. Chronis bought 2,241 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $24.89 per share, with a total value of $55,778.49. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 23,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $597,235.55. The trade was a 10.30 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 745,263 shares of company stock valued at $18,578,014. 12.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kinder Morgan

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 1.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 16,904,252 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $335,891,000 after buying an additional 257,658 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 10,550,002 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $233,050,000 after acquiring an additional 69,307 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 39.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 8,186,207 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $180,833,000 after acquiring an additional 2,334,273 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 20.6% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 7,770,943 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $154,409,000 after acquiring an additional 1,328,082 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in Kinder Morgan by 2.2% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 7,485,834 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $163,116,000 after purchasing an additional 164,152 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.52% of the company’s stock.

Kinder Morgan Company 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.