Hoey Investments Inc. Decreases Position in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Hoey Investments Inc. trimmed its stake in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) by 1.2% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 36,406 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 439 shares during the quarter. Kinder Morgan comprises approximately 0.2% of Hoey Investments Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Hoey Investments Inc.’s holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $1,039,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in KMI. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter worth $917,523,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter valued at $157,804,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Kinder Morgan by 212.5% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,468,235 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $156,009,000 after purchasing an additional 3,718,521 shares during the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. increased its stake in Kinder Morgan by 435.0% in the fourth quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 4,358,263 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $119,416,000 after purchasing an additional 3,543,670 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter valued at $87,729,000. 62.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on KMI. Scotiabank upped their target price on Kinder Morgan from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Barclays upgraded Kinder Morgan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $31.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Kinder Morgan in a research note on Monday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Kinder Morgan from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.21.

Insider Transactions 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, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.57, for a total transaction of $496,260.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 789,652 shares in the company, valued at $21,770,705.64. This trade represents a 2.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 54,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,522,440 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 12.73% of the company’s stock.

Kinder Morgan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE KMI opened at $27.61 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $27.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $61.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.59, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.74. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.47 and a 1 year high of $31.48.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.34. The business had revenue of $4.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.02 billion. Kinder Morgan had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 17.31%. Research analysts forecast that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $0.2925 per share. This is a boost from Kinder Morgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.17 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 30th. Kinder Morgan’s 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.