Welch & Forbes LLC Purchases Shares of 12,202 Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Welch & Forbes LLC acquired a new position in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 12,202 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $348,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 202,846,078 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,557,983,000 after acquiring an additional 1,469,759 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,759,844 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,414,813,000 after acquiring an additional 1,252,609 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $917,523,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Kinder Morgan by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 20,942,841 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $573,834,000 after acquiring an additional 1,608,499 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 14,711,722 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $403,101,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,576 shares during the period. 62.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $32.00 price objective (up from $31.00) on shares of Kinder Morgan in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Kinder Morgan in a report on Monday, July 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.00 price objective for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Kinder Morgan from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.47.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.26, for a total value of $508,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president owned 771,652 shares in the company, valued at $21,806,885.52. This represents a 2.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 12.73% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Kinder Morgan Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NYSE KMI opened at $27.50 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.60. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a one year low of $19.68 and a one year high of $31.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.54, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.35.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.28. The company had revenue of $4.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.75 billion. Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 17.06% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st will be paid a $0.2925 dividend. This represents a $1.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 31st. 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.