Generali Asset Management SPA SGR Buys Shares of 28,451 Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP)

Generali Asset Management SPA SGR bought a new stake in shares of Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 28,451 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,079,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Evoke Wealth LLC bought a new position in Targa Resources during the 4th quarter valued at about $230,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in Targa Resources by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 15,208 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,752,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc bought a new position in Targa Resources during the 4th quarter valued at about $250,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Targa Resources during the 4th quarter valued at about $307,000. Finally, Cozad Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Targa Resources in the 4th quarter worth approximately $341,000. Institutional investors own 92.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on TRGP shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $171.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $218.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $208.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $185.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $218.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $210.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider D. Scott Pryor sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.30, for a total transaction of $6,905,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 82,139 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,206,024.70. This represents a 29.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Waters S. Iv Davis sold 2,190 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.26, for a total value of $429,809.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,899 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $568,957.74. This represents a 43.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 115,914 shares of company stock worth $22,613,288. 1.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Targa Resources Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of TRGP opened at $194.05 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.05, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.61. Targa Resources Corp. has a 1 year low of $107.31 and a 1 year high of $218.51. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $199.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $182.29. The firm has a market cap of $42.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 2.32.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The pipeline company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.46). Targa Resources had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 28.67%. The company had revenue of $4.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.48 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Targa Resources Corp. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Targa Resources Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. Targa Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.26%.

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.