Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) Director Sells $23,329,500.00 in Stock

Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) Director Joe Bob Perkins sold 150,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.53, for a total value of $23,329,500.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 110,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,181,399.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Targa Resources Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE TRGP opened at $146.80 on Friday. Targa Resources Corp. has a 12-month low of $77.97 and a 12-month high of $157.68. The company has a market cap of $32.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 2.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.98. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $142.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $126.95.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The pipeline company reported $1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $3.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.33 billion. Targa Resources had a net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 23.98%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Targa Resources Corp. will post 5.88 EPS for the current year.

Targa Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st were paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 31st. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Targa Resources’s payout ratio is currently 61.73%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TRGP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Targa Resources from $134.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $116.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $147.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Targa Resources from $147.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $141.77.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Targa Resources

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TRGP. Blackstone Inc. boosted its position in Targa Resources by 60.4% during the 4th quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 9,442,728 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $820,290,000 after acquiring an additional 3,554,989 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Targa Resources by 231.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,378,046 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $119,712,000 after purchasing an additional 962,073 shares during the period. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new position in Targa Resources in the 2nd quarter valued at about $72,345,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Targa Resources by 239.1% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 791,095 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $101,877,000 after buying an additional 557,832 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Targa Resources by 71.8% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,024,713 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $114,758,000 after buying an additional 428,276 shares in the last quarter. 92.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Targa Resources

Targa Resources Corp., together with its subsidiary, Targa Resources Partners LP, owns, operates, acquires, and develops a portfolio of complementary domestic midstream infrastructure assets in North America. It operates in two segments, Gathering and Processing, and Logistics and Transportation. The company is involved in gathering, compressing, treating, processing, transporting, and selling natural gas; storing, fractionating, treating, transporting, and selling natural gas liquids (NGL) and NGL products, including services to liquefied petroleum gas exporters; and gathering, storing, terminaling, purchasing, and selling crude oil.