Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI) Continues to Sink on Bevy of Bad News

What have hedge funds been doing with Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 72 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long KMI, a 13% increase from one quarter earlier. When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Eric W. Mandelblatt’s Soroban Capital Partners has the biggest position in Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI), worth close to $955 million in shares underlying call options. The second-largest stake is held by Bob Peck and Andy Raab of FPR Partners, with a $165.6 million long position; the fund also has a $124.8 million position of shares underlying call options. Some other peers that hold long positions include the quant funds D E Shaw and Renaissance Technologies.

Among the top investors opening new positions was Brookside Capital, managed by Bain Capital, which had $45.7 million invested in the company at the end of the third quarter. Jody LaNasa and Vivian Lau’s Serengeti Asset Management also initiated a $16.6 million position during the quarter. Other funds with new positions in the stock include Jorge Paulo Lemann’s 3G Capital, Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP, and Frank Brosens’ Taconic Capital.

As mentioned, we’ll also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI). These stocks are Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR), and Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to Kinder Morgan’s.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 46 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.77 billion. That figure was $1.83 billion in Kinder Morgan’s case. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) is the most popular stock in this table with 55 investors tracked by Insider Monkey having long positions in it. On the other hand Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) is the least popular one with only 31 long positions. Compared to these stocks, Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI) is more popular among hedge funds and has an above-average amount of money invested in it.

Considering that hedge funds are quite fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, the big drop this week could provide a golden opportunity for investors to go long, with the understanding that it could be years before Kinder Morgan’s situation materially improves.

Disclosure: None