NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Oil and gas pipeline operator Kinder Morgan's shares do not appear cheap despite having fallen 60 percent this year, and could fall further before reaching fair value, U.S. weekly investment publication Barron's said in its Dec. 14 edition.
In an issue profiling the outlook for stock investments in 2016, Barron's said the company's stock price does not look cheap at $17 a share, close to recent trading levels, and fair value could be around $13 a share.
Barron's said that Kinder Morgan was not likely to increase its dividend until 2017 at the earliest, and that one of the company's risks was its $42.5 billion in net debt and a ratio of nearly six for debt to annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Barron's, which noted that it has been bearish on Kinder Morgan in the past, also said that the company's recent 75 percent dividend cut underlined the vulnerability of pipelines that depend on external financing for most of their capital expenditures.
(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)