Regal Investment Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Regal Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 90,782 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 5,586 shares during the quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $2,487,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of KMI. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 0.7% in 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,759,844 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,414,813,000 after acquiring an additional 1,252,609 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $917,523,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Kinder Morgan by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 13,734,753 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $376,332,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,242 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi raised its position in Kinder Morgan by 28.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 11,819,777 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $334,381,000 after purchasing an additional 2,650,040 shares in the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on KMI shares. Mizuho raised their price target on Kinder Morgan from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays upgraded shares of Kinder Morgan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $31.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Kinder Morgan from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Kinder Morgan from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.64.

Insider Activity

In other Kinder Morgan news, VP John W. Schlosser sold 75,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.65, for a total value of $2,011,035.65. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 220,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,881,148.65. This represents a 25.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.70, for a total value of $498,600.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 843,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,369,160.40. This trade represents a 2.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 129,461 shares of company stock valued at $3,506,116. Company insiders own 12.64% of the company’s stock.

Kinder Morgan Stock Performance

KMI opened at $27.21 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $60.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.72. 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’s 50-day moving average price is $26.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.84. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.61 and a 52-week high of $31.48.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 17.31% and a return on equity of 8.09%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.2875 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.23%. Kinder Morgan’s payout ratio is presently 98.29%.

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.