Warren Buffett Bets Big On Kinder Morgan

Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE: KMI) shares are up 6.5 percent in Tuesday's after-hours session amid a newly discovered vote of confidence from Warren Buffett. According to Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway's fourth quarter 13F filing, the investor now holds just over 26 million shares of the company, worth $395 million.

That position is now Buffett's 30th largest holding, far below his other chief energy holding in Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX), worth $5.0 billion at the end of last year.

The stake in Kinder Morgan was Buffett and his team's only new position of the fourth quarter. In the stock, he joins Appaloosa Management, Corvex Management and others.

The size of the position likely makes the fund the eighth-largest Kinder Morgan shareholder on record.

News of the bullishness comes weeks after upgrades from Credit Suisse and Stifel, along with an 180,000 share purchase from a Kinder Morgan director earlier this month.

On February 8, Goldman Sachs analyst Brian Singer said Kinder Morgan's decision to cut its dividend by 75 percent could be only the beginning for MLPs. He named several other risky names that could follow the stock down that road.