Legal & General Group Plc Boosts Holdings in Targa Resources, Inc. $TRGP

Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Targa Resources, Inc. (NYSE:TRGP) by 0.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,604,424 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 3,180 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Targa Resources were worth $268,805,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its holdings in Targa Resources by 1.3% in the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 5,046 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $845,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. State of Wyoming increased its position in Targa Resources by 3.2% during the second quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 2,076 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $361,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC raised its stake in Targa Resources by 2.6% during the third quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 2,849 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. ICONIQ Capital LLC raised its stake in Targa Resources by 5.7% during the second quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $250,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Finally, SL Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. SL Advisors LLC now owns 18,452 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,091,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. 92.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on TRGP. Citigroup upped their price objective on Targa Resources from $200.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Weiss Ratings raised Targa Resources from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $226.00 price target on shares of Targa Resources in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Targa Resources from $218.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $241.00 price objective on shares of Targa Resources in a research note on Friday, February 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Targa Resources presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $240.79.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Charles R. Crisp sold 1,359 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.30, for a total transaction of $311,618.70. Following the sale, the director owned 77,094 shares in the company, valued at $17,677,654.20. This trade represents a 1.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Robert Muraro sold 24,589 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.34, for a total transaction of $5,934,309.26. Following the sale, the insider owned 197,401 shares in the company, valued at $47,640,757.34. This represents a 11.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 104,929 shares of company stock worth $24,692,134 in the last ninety days. 1.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Targa Resources Stock Performance

NYSE:TRGP opened at $236.49 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $208.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $182.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.21. Targa Resources, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.14 and a twelve month high of $250.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.84.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The pipeline company reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.35 by $0.16. Targa Resources had a return on equity of 65.48% and a net margin of 10.88%.The firm had revenue of $4.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Targa Resources, Inc. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Targa Resources Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Investors of record on Friday, January 30th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 30th. Targa Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.57%.

Targa Resources Company Profile

Targa Resources Corporation (NYSE: TRGP) is a U.S.-focused midstream energy company that provides gathering, processing, transportation, storage and marketing services for natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and condensate. Its operations span the midstream value chain, including gas gathering systems that collect production from wells, processing plants that separate and recover NGLs and other hydrocarbons, fractionation and purification facilities that prepare NGLs for market, and pipeline and terminal assets that move and store products for producers, refiners and other customers.

The company operates a network of pipelines, processing plants, fractionators and storage facilities that serve producers and consumers across major U.S.