Kinder Morgan Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:KMI)

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 100,953 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 399% compared to the average volume of 20,213 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on KMI shares. Barclays upgraded shares of Kinder Morgan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $31.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Kinder Morgan from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Kinder Morgan presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.71.

Kinder Morgan Price Performance

Shares of KMI stock opened at $27.20 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.08. Kinder Morgan has a one year low of $18.13 and a one year high of $31.48. The firm has a market cap of $60.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.25, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.72.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 17.31% and a return on equity of 8.09%. On average, analysts expect that Kinder Morgan will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of $0.2925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. This is a positive change from Kinder Morgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.30%. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio is 100.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.61, for a total value of $478,980.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 825,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,970,599.72. This represents a 2.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP John W. Schlosser sold 75,461 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.65, for a total transaction of $2,011,035.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 220,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,881,148.65. This trade represents a 25.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 129,461 shares of company stock worth $3,506,116 over the last quarter. 12.73% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kinder Morgan

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Kinder Morgan by 0.7% during the 4th 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 lifted its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,759,844 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,414,813,000 after purchasing an additional 1,252,609 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $917,523,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 20,942,841 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $573,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,608,499 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in Kinder Morgan by 16.8% in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.