Man Group plc Grows Stock Holdings in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Man Group plc boosted its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) by 132.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 387,457 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 220,870 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc’s holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $10,616,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of KMI. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Kinder Morgan during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Kinder Morgan during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Kinder Morgan during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised 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 valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 703 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.52% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kinder Morgan news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.61, for a total transaction of $478,980.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 825,652 shares in the company, valued at $21,970,599.72. This represents a 2.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP John W. Schlosser sold 75,461 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 220,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,881,148.65. The trade was a 25.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 129,461 shares of company stock worth $3,503,776 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 12.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays raised shares of Kinder Morgan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $31.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, UBS Group increased 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $29.79.

Kinder Morgan Trading Up 0.3%

KMI stock opened at $28.09 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $62.41 billion, a PE ratio of 24.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.74. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 12 month low of $18.83 and a 12 month high of $31.48. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $27.15 and its 200 day moving average is $27.32. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.34. Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 17.31% and a return on equity of 8.09%. The company had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.02 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current year.

Kinder Morgan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $0.2925 per share. This represents a $1.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.17%. This is a boost from Kinder Morgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 30th. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.