Targa Resources’ (TRGP) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Stifel Nicolaus

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by stock analysts at Stifel Nicolaus in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $340.00 target price on the pipeline company’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 16.66% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently commented on TRGP. Raymond James Financial set a $335.00 price target on shares of Targa Resources in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Wolfe Research set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Targa Resources in a report on Friday, August 7th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. US Capital Advisors lowered shares of Targa Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $333.00 to $343.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Targa Resources has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $305.41.

Targa Resources Stock Performance

TRGP opened at $291.44 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $279.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $261.35. The company has a market capitalization of $62.49 billion, a PE ratio of 27.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.72. Targa Resources has a 1 year low of $144.14 and a 1 year high of $307.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.01, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.68.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The pipeline company reported $3.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.83 by $0.71. Targa Resources had a return on equity of 69.26% and a net margin of 13.55%.The firm had revenue of $4.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.90 billion. Research analysts expect that Targa Resources will post 11.29 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Waters S. Iv Davis sold 2,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.67, for a total value of $719,208.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,529 shares in the company, valued at approximately $458,195.43. The trade was a 61.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Paul W. Chung sold 1,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.11, for a total transaction of $537,735.76. Following the sale, the director directly owned 44,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,028,840. This trade represents a 3.96% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 7,216 shares of company stock valued at $2,127,634 over the last quarter. 1.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Woodline Partners LP lifted its stake in Targa Resources by 40.7% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 18,423 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,693,000 after purchasing an additional 5,327 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth increased its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 157.4% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,931 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $788,000 after purchasing an additional 2,404 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,697 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $644,000 after buying an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 13.1% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,521 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $787,000 after buying an additional 524 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Targa Resources by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 31,881 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $5,550,000 after buying an additional 3,163 shares during the last quarter. 92.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Targa Resources Company Profile

Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE: TRGP) is a midstream energy infrastructure company that gathers, processes, transports and fractionates natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs). Its operations connect producers with downstream markets and include natural gas gathering and processing, NGL fractionation, storage, transportation and marketing, as well as crude oil gathering and logistics.

The company operates an integrated network of pipelines, processing plants, fractionation facilities, storage assets and export infrastructure across the United States.