Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Acquires 8,765 Shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 638,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,765 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $17,486,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of KMI. Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 303,044 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,303,000 after purchasing an additional 15,114 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Kinder Morgan by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,291,704 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $50,624,000 after purchasing an additional 71,984 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Equity Partners boosted its position in Kinder Morgan by 2,507.9% in the fourth quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 16,430 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $450,000 after buying an additional 15,800 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its stake in Kinder Morgan by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 2,265,044 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $62,062,000 after buying an additional 44,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 39.9% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 8,186,207 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $180,833,000 after buying an additional 2,334,273 shares in the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KMI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Kinder Morgan from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group raised their target price on Kinder Morgan from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Barclays upgraded 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 report on Monday, March 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Kinder Morgan has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.64.

Insider Transactions at Kinder Morgan

In other Kinder Morgan news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of Kinder Morgan stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.91, for a total transaction of $502,380.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 861,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,048,707.32. The trade was a 2.05 % 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, 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 value of $2,011,035.65. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 220,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,881,148.65. This trade represents 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 valued at $3,490,996 over the last three months. 12.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Kinder Morgan Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE:KMI opened at $28.39 on Friday. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 12-month low of $17.61 and a 12-month high of $31.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $63.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.38.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The pipeline company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.01). Kinder Morgan had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 17.31%. Equities research analysts expect that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Kinder Morgan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.2875 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.05%. Kinder Morgan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 98.29%.

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.