Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) Sets New 1-Year High at $152.88

Shares of Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $152.88 and last traded at $152.60, with a volume of 29722 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $152.02.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TRGP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on Targa Resources from $123.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $116.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $147.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Targa Resources from $128.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Targa Resources from $124.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $141.77.

Targa Resources Stock Performance

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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $140.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $124.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.33 billion, a PE ratio of 31.30, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 2.26.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The pipeline company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.33 billion. Targa Resources had a net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 23.98%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Targa Resources Corp. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Targa Resources Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 31st. Targa Resources’s payout ratio is 61.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Targa Resources news, CAO Julie H. Boushka sold 1,213 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.02, for a total transaction of $160,140.26. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 52,257 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,898,969.14. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Targa Resources news, CAO Julie H. Boushka sold 1,213 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.02, for a total transaction of $160,140.26. Following the transaction, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Robert Muraro sold 9,900 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.31, for a total transaction of $1,290,069.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 186,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,361,584.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 35,534 shares of company stock worth $4,788,590 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.39% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Targa Resources

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TRGP. Blackstone Inc. increased its position in Targa Resources by 60.4% during the fourth quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 9,442,728 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $820,290,000 after acquiring an additional 3,554,989 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Targa Resources during the 4th quarter valued at about $187,123,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 231.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,378,046 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $119,712,000 after purchasing an additional 962,073 shares during the period. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new position in shares of Targa Resources in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $72,345,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 239.1% in the second 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. 92.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Targa Resources Company 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.