Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) Stock Price

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) had its target price hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $27.00 to $30.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the pipeline company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on KMI. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.25.

Kinder Morgan Price Performance

Shares of KMI stock traded up $0.16 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $25.99. The company had a trading volume of 3,666,193 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,727,044. Kinder Morgan has a 52 week low of $16.47 and a 52 week high of $28.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $57.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $26.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $22.83.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last posted 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). Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 16.76% and a return on equity of 7.87%. The company had revenue of $3.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Kinder Morgan will post 1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were issued a dividend of $0.2875 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.42%. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 100.88%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kinder Morgan

In other Kinder Morgan news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.34, for a total value of $492,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 879,652 shares in the company, valued at $24,049,685.68. This trade represents a 2.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Amy W. Chronis bought 2,241 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $24.89 per share, with a total value of $55,778.49. Following the purchase, the director now owns 23,995 shares in the company, valued at $597,235.55. This trade represents a 10.30 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 727,263 shares of company stock valued at $18,075,634 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kinder Morgan

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $335,891,000 after purchasing an additional 257,658 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 0.7% during 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 during the period. First Pacific Advisors LP lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP now owns 8,198,954 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $162,913,000 after acquiring an additional 163,294 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings 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 last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 20.6% in 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.52% of the company’s stock.

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.