Hickory Point Bank & Trust Buys Shares of 18,557 Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Hickory Point Bank & Trust bought a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 18,557 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $508,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Athena Investment Management purchased a new position in Kinder Morgan during the 4th quarter valued at about $242,000. Hamel Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan during the fourth quarter worth about $244,000. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 176,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,848,000 after buying an additional 6,934 shares in the last quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan during the fourth quarter worth about $202,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 74.5% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,916 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $628,000 after buying an additional 9,780 shares in the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KMI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $36.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Kinder Morgan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.14.

Kinder Morgan Trading Up 3.4 %

Shares of KMI stock opened at $27.09 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $60.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.18 and a fifty-two week high of $31.48. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $27.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.52.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current year.

Kinder Morgan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.2875 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.25%. Kinder Morgan’s payout ratio is currently 98.29%.

Insider Transactions at Kinder Morgan

In related news, VP John W. Schlosser sold 75,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.65, for a total value of $2,011,035.65. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 220,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,881,148.65. This represents a 25.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.91, for a total transaction of $502,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 861,652 shares in the company, valued at $24,048,707.32. This represents a 2.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 129,461 shares of company stock valued at $3,504,136. Corporate insiders own 12.64% of the company’s stock.

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.