Investors Buy Large Volume of Kinder Morgan Call Options (NYSE:KMI)

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Investors purchased 20,717 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 39% compared to the average daily volume of 14,872 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on KMI. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Kinder Morgan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $20.00 target price (down from $22.00) on shares of Kinder Morgan in a report on Monday, March 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.20.

Institutional Trading of Kinder Morgan

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KMI. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new stake in Kinder Morgan during the first quarter valued at $93,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Kinder Morgan by 12.3% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 91,931 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,739,000 after purchasing an additional 10,079 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Kinder Morgan by 48,564.7% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 8,273 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $156,000 after purchasing an additional 8,256 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 1.6% during the first quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 90,218 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,705,000 after acquiring an additional 1,408 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan during the first quarter valued at $263,000. Institutional investors own 62.52% of the company’s stock.

Kinder Morgan Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of NYSE:KMI traded up $0.54 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $18.75. The company had a trading volume of 10,557,854 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,065,699. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $17.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.56, a PEG ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 0.90. Kinder Morgan has a one year low of $15.89 and a one year high of $18.88.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The pipeline company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34. The business had revenue of $3.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.36 billion. Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 16.08% and a return on equity of 7.85%. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.30 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Kinder Morgan will post 1.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.2875 per share. This is a positive change from Kinder Morgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $1.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.13%. Kinder Morgan’s payout ratio is presently 102.73%.

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.