Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Buys 45,572 Shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) by 7.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 670,611 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 45,572 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $19,133,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on KMI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Kinder Morgan in a report on Monday, May 5th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Kinder Morgan from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, Barclays raised Kinder Morgan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $31.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.21.

Kinder Morgan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:KMI opened at $27.52 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $61.14 billion, a PE ratio of 23.52, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.74. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $27.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $27.45. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 1-year low of $19.47 and a 1-year high of $31.48. 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 business had revenue of $4.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.02 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $0.2925 per share. This represents a $1.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.25%. This is an increase from Kinder Morgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 30th. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.86%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kinder Morgan news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.26, for a total transaction of $508,680.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 771,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,806,885.52. This trade represents a 2.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders sold 54,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,522,440. Corporate insiders own 12.73% 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.