Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC Takes $255,000 Position in Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP)

Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC acquired a new stake in Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,981 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $255,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in TRGP. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Targa Resources by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,015,992 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,025,521,000 after purchasing an additional 201,817 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Targa Resources by 231.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,378,046 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $119,712,000 after purchasing an additional 962,073 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lifted its holdings in Targa Resources by 287.3% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 45,700 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,118,000 after purchasing an additional 33,900 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Targa Resources by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $536,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in Targa Resources by 160.3% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 290,080 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $32,486,000 after purchasing an additional 178,655 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on TRGP. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $116.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $124.00 to $153.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $132.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $134.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $123.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $140.54.

Targa Resources Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:TRGP opened at $146.72 on Friday. Targa Resources Corp. has a one year low of $77.97 and a one year high of $152.42. The company has a 50 day moving average of $138.82 and a 200-day moving average of $123.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $32.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 2.26.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The pipeline company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.12. Targa Resources had a net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 23.98%. The company had revenue of $3.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Targa Resources Corp. will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Targa Resources Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Targa Resources

In related news, insider Robert Muraro sold 9,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.31, for a total value of $1,290,069.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 186,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,361,584.81. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CAO Julie H. Boushka sold 1,213 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.02, for a total value of $160,140.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 52,257 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,898,969.14. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Robert Muraro sold 9,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.31, for a total value of $1,290,069.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 186,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,361,584.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 35,534 shares of company stock valued at $4,788,590. Corporate insiders own 1.39% of the company’s stock.

Targa Resources Profile

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.