Kinder Morgan Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:KMI)

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 20,717 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 39% compared to the typical volume of 14,872 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 102,208.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 41,070,520 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $742,555,000 after acquiring an additional 41,030,376 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 1,352.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 36,803,132 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $665,401,000 after acquiring an additional 34,269,435 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $409,063,000. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $99,908,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 29.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 21,438,556 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $355,451,000 after acquiring an additional 4,870,444 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.52% of the company’s stock.

Kinder Morgan Price Performance

NYSE:KMI traded up $0.54 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $18.75. 10,557,854 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,065,699. Kinder Morgan has a 12 month low of $15.89 and a 12 month high of $18.88. The company has a fifty day moving average of $17.74 and a 200 day moving average of $17.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market cap of $41.61 billion, a PE ratio of 16.56, a PEG ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 0.90.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The pipeline company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34. Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 16.08% and a return on equity of 7.85%. The firm had revenue of $3.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Kinder Morgan will post 1.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be paid a $0.2875 dividend. This represents a $1.15 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. This is a positive change from Kinder Morgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on KMI. StockNews.com lowered shares of Kinder Morgan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $20.00 target price (down previously from $22.00) on shares of Kinder Morgan in a report on Monday, March 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.20.

Kinder Morgan Company 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.