Vawter Financial Ltd. Purchases Shares of 7,700 Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Vawter Financial Ltd. purchased a new stake in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 7,700 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in KMI. Creative Planning raised its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 412,376 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $9,109,000 after acquiring an additional 20,468 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan in the 3rd quarter valued at $75,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 22,813 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $504,000 after acquiring an additional 776 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 47.0% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 24,818 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $548,000 after acquiring an additional 7,932 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 100,386 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,218,000 after acquiring an additional 2,456 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.52% of the company’s stock.

Kinder Morgan Price Performance

KMI opened at $26.77 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $27.79 and a 200-day moving average of $25.23. The company has a market capitalization of $59.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.94. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 1-year low of $17.00 and a 1-year high of $31.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.49.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The pipeline company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.01). Kinder Morgan had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 17.31%. Equities analysts expect that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.2875 dividend. This represents a $1.15 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 98.29%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on KMI. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. 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 research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.14.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of Kinder Morgan stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.70, for a total value of $498,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 843,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,369,160.40. The trade was a 2.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders sold 54,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,493,100. Company insiders own 12.81% of the company’s stock.

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.