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

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 20,717 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 39% compared to the typical volume of 14,872 call options.

Institutional Trading of Kinder Morgan

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its position in Kinder Morgan by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 1,806,166 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $31,969,000 after buying an additional 30,310 shares during the last quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC now owns 135,209 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,480,000 after purchasing an additional 5,335 shares during the period. Tempus Wealth Planning LLC boosted its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. Tempus Wealth Planning LLC now owns 100,096 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,836,000 after acquiring an additional 9,354 shares in the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Kinder Morgan by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 24,574 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $451,000 after acquiring an additional 767 shares during the period. Finally, Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Kinder Morgan in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,539,000. 62.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Kinder Morgan Stock Performance

Kinder Morgan stock opened at $18.84 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $41.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.98 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.28. Kinder Morgan has a 12-month low of $15.89 and a 12-month high of $18.90. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $17.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.40.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The pipeline company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $4.36 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.30 EPS. Kinder Morgan’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Kinder Morgan will post 1.22 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be given a $0.2875 dividend. This represents a $1.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.10%. This is an increase from Kinder Morgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. Kinder Morgan’s payout ratio is currently 102.73%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KMI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective (down from $22.00) on shares of Kinder Morgan in a report on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com lowered Kinder Morgan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.20.

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.