Insider Selling: Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) Director Sells 7,000 Shares of Stock

Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) Director Charles R. Crisp sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.54, for a total value of $787,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 95,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,744,306.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Targa Resources Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE TRGP traded up $1.14 on Thursday, reaching $113.59. The company had a trading volume of 1,209,733 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,715,394. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market cap of $25.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.14 and a beta of 2.19. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $110.94 and its 200-day moving average is $95.46. Targa Resources Corp. has a 52 week low of $67.36 and a 52 week high of $117.87.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The pipeline company reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.26). Targa Resources had a net margin of 6.86% and a return on equity of 24.41%. The firm had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.50 billion. Equities analysts predict that Targa Resources Corp. will post 5.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Targa Resources Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This is an increase from Targa Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. Targa Resources’s dividend payout ratio is 61.73%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Targa Resources

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Blackstone Inc. raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 3,554,989 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Targa Resources by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,319,024 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $713,107,000 after acquiring an additional 401,144 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 200.4% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,577,027 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $478,063,000 after purchasing an additional 3,720,270 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 16.1% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,791,452 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $325,003,000 after purchasing an additional 524,794 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Targa Resources by 1.6% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,487,507 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $213,229,000 after purchasing an additional 39,143 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on TRGP. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $111.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $106.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Targa Resources from $109.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Targa Resources from $105.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Targa Resources from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Targa Resources has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $119.92.

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.