UPDATE: Bank of America Downgrades Kinder Morgan; Raises PT

According to a research report published earlier today, Bank of America has downgraded Kinder Morgan Inc.'s (

) shares from Neutral to Underperform, and has increased PT from $32 to $33. Bank of America commented in the report, “YTD12, KMI has outperformed the Alerian MLP Index (

), many of its general partner (GP) peers, and KMP/KMR. KMI's 15.5% YTD price performance compares to 3.0% for the AMZ, 9.1% for KMI's GP peers, and -0.9/-0.7% for KMP/KMR, respectively. Although we view the KMI/EP merger as an incremental positive for the KMI story, we see KMI's valuation as stretched considering KMI's current dividend yield of 3.3% is lower than the average yield for its GP peers of 3.8%, although its growth outlook is more moderate than many of its peers.” Kinder Morgan closed yesterday at $37.14.