Caprock Group LLC Increases Stock Position in Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP)

Caprock Group LLC boosted its holdings in Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,461 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 770 shares during the quarter. Caprock Group LLC’s holdings in Targa Resources were worth $2,436,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new position in shares of Targa Resources in the second quarter valued at approximately $72,345,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position 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 worth $101,877,000 after buying an additional 557,832 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 26.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,738,721 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $194,720,000 after acquiring an additional 360,675 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 13.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,303,522 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $296,647,000 after acquiring an additional 271,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blackstone Inc. raised its holdings in Targa Resources by 2.7% during the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 9,695,457 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,085,794,000 after purchasing an additional 252,729 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Robert Muraro sold 2,500 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.20, for a total value of $365,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 174,451 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,504,736.20. The trade was a 1.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider D. Scott Pryor sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.33, for a total value of $5,709,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 82,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,793,393.07. The trade was a 26.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 185,760 shares of company stock valued at $30,026,712 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on TRGP. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Targa Resources from $172.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Targa Resources from $182.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Argus upgraded Targa Resources to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Targa Resources from $153.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $173.00 to $202.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Targa Resources has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $169.79.

Targa Resources Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of TRGP opened at $203.62 on Wednesday. Targa Resources Corp. has a 1-year low of $81.03 and a 1-year high of $203.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.05, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $164.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $141.76. The stock has a market cap of $44.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 2.24.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.17. Targa Resources had a return on equity of 27.59% and a net margin of 7.65%. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Targa Resources Corp. will post 6.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Targa Resources Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.47%. Targa Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.25%.

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.