Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Sells 4,700 Shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System decreased its stake in Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 104,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 4,700 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $2,850,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Leavell Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 680.9% in the 4th quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 109,435 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,999,000 after acquiring an additional 95,421 shares in the last quarter. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas grew its holdings in shares of Kinder Morgan by 37.3% in the 4th quarter. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas now owns 57,171 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,566,000 after acquiring an additional 15,527 shares in the last quarter. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Kinder Morgan in the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Armor Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Armor Investment Advisors LLC now owns 64,114 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,757,000 after purchasing an additional 1,965 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its stake in Kinder Morgan by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 14,674 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $402,000 after purchasing an additional 997 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on KMI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Kinder Morgan from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.14.

Kinder Morgan Stock Up 1.2 %

NYSE KMI opened at $26.59 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Kinder Morgan, Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.49 and a 1-year high of $31.48. The company has a 50 day moving average of $27.85 and a 200-day moving average of $25.05. The company has a market cap of $59.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.72, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.94.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The pipeline company reported $0.32 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kinder Morgan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a $0.2875 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.33%. Kinder Morgan’s payout ratio is 98.29%.

Insider Activity

In related news, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of Kinder Morgan stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.91, for a total value of $502,380.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 861,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,048,707.32. This trade represents a 2.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 54,000 shares of company stock worth $1,493,100. Corporate insiders own 12.64% 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.