Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI) is up a little over 4% year-to-date, so it’s largely been a disappointment. The following data won’t excite you either.
At the moment, there are a multitude of methods shareholders can use to monitor publicly traded companies. Some of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can beat the market by a superb amount (see just how much).
Just as useful, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are many incentives for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).
What’s more, let’s study the latest info surrounding Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI).
Hedge fund activity in Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI)
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 51 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -6% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.
Because Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI) has faced declining interest from the top-tier hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of hedge funds who sold off their positions entirely in Q1. Intriguingly, Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital cut the largest position of all the hedgies we watch, worth about $16.1 million in stock, and John Paulson of Paulson & Co was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $12.9 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds in Q1.
Insider trading activity in Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI)
Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI) has seen 2 unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI). These stocks are Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA), Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE:SE), Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB), Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE:KMP), and Enbridge Inc (USA) (NYSE:ENB). All of these stocks are in the oil & gas pipelines industry and their market caps are closest to KMI’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) | 10 | 0 | 4 |
| Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE:SE) | 22 | 0 | 5 |
| Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) | 44 | 1 | 7 |
| Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE:KMP) | 14 | 0 | 1 |
| Enbridge Inc (USA) (NYSE:ENB) | 18 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results demonstrated by the previously mentioned analyses, average investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI) applies perfectly to this mantra.
