Gary Hultquist, a director at Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI), recently bought 13,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by 80 percent, and came to a total purchase price of just over $211,000.
He was joined by two other directors. One bought 10,000 shares, paying just over $162,000. The other bought 6,000 shares, paying just over $98,000 for that stake. These are the first insider buys since August 2020. Two company executives have been sellers of shares at higher prices this year.
Insiders own 11.6 percent of the company overall.
Shares of the pipeline company are up 12 percent over the past year, rising at about half the rate of the S&P 500 index. With revenues up 31 percent, shares have been looking cheaper on a valuation basis, and now trade for 17 times forward earnings.
Action to take: With energy prices looking set to stay higher for longer right now, the pipeline company should benefit from those energy trends. Investors may like shares here, as the stock yields 6.7 percent at current prices.
Shares have been somewhat rangebound over the past few months, but with insiders buying and a relative value emerging, they could break higher.
The March $17 calls are near-the-money and are inexpensive at around $0.38 per contract. They could see a triple-digit rise if shares jump higher in the coming months.
Disclosure: The author of this article has a position in the company mentioned here, and may further trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.