Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Kinder Morgan Call Options (NYSE:KMI)

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 26,802 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 45% compared to the typical daily volume of 18,489 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on KMI shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Kinder Morgan from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Morgan Stanley set a $26.00 price target on shares of Kinder Morgan in a research note on Friday, October 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Kinder Morgan from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Kinder Morgan in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $27.00 target price for the company. Finally, Scotiabank began coverage on Kinder Morgan in a research note on Friday, January 10th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $26.00 price target on the stock. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kinder Morgan news, Director Amy W. Chronis bought 2,241 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $24.89 per share, with a total value of $55,778.49. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 23,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $597,235.55. This represents a 10.30 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Thomas A. Martin sold 18,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.91, for a total transaction of $502,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 861,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,048,707.32. This trade represents a 2.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 745,263 shares of company stock worth $18,578,014 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.64% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kinder Morgan

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of KMI. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Kinder Morgan in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in Kinder Morgan during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new stake in shares of Kinder Morgan in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan by 143.6% in the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 1,352 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 797 shares in the last quarter. 62.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Kinder Morgan Stock Performance

Shares of Kinder Morgan stock traded up $0.59 during trading on Thursday, reaching $30.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 11,739,010 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,088,289. Kinder Morgan has a fifty-two week low of $16.47 and a fifty-two week high of $30.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $66.70 billion, a PE ratio of 26.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $27.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.91.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The pipeline company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.05 billion. Kinder Morgan had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 16.76%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.25 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Kinder Morgan will post 1.17 EPS for the current year.

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.