Empirical Finance LLC Sells 863 Shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Empirical Finance LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 66,565 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 863 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $1,824,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of KMI. Clarius Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan in the third quarter worth about $206,000. Carnegie Investment Counsel raised its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 633,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $14,002,000 after acquiring an additional 16,649 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in Kinder Morgan by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 2,068,338 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $45,690,000 after purchasing an additional 57,462 shares during the last quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA boosted its position in Kinder Morgan by 30.1% during the third quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 25,286 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $559,000 after purchasing an additional 5,852 shares during the period. Finally, McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 23.1% in the third quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 18,522 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $409,000 after purchasing an additional 3,480 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.52% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of Kinder Morgan stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the president now owns 879,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,049,685.68. The trade was a 2.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 54,000 shares of company stock worth $1,493,100. Corporate insiders own 12.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on KMI shares. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Bank of America initiated coverage on Kinder Morgan in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $27.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Kinder Morgan has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.14.

Kinder Morgan Price Performance

NYSE:KMI opened at $27.07 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $60.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.13, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day moving average of $27.89 and a 200-day moving average of $24.94. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 52 week low of $16.47 and a 52 week high of $31.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.49.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The pipeline company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.01). Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 17.31% and a return on equity of 8.09%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.2875 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.25%. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.29%.

Kinder Morgan 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.