EP Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 139,232 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 1,719 shares during the quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $3,815,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Kinder Morgan during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Hurley Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Kinder Morgan during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 178.0% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,098 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 703 shares during the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on KMI. Citigroup upped their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $36.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $25.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Kinder Morgan in a research report on Monday. Finally, Barclays raised Kinder Morgan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $31.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kinder Morgan news, VP John W. Schlosser sold 75,461 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.65, for a total transaction of $2,011,035.65. Following the completion of the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of Kinder Morgan stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at $21,970,599.72. This represents a 2.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 129,461 shares of company stock valued at $3,503,776 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.73% of the company’s stock.

Kinder Morgan Trading Down 2.1 %

KMI opened at $27.05 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.74. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.16. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.81 and a 1-year high of $31.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.39.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 17.31%. The firm had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.02 billion. Analysts expect that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued a $0.2925 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.33%. This is a positive change from Kinder Morgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 100.86%.

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.