Targa Resources, Inc. $TRGP Shares Acquired by ARS Investment Partners LLC

ARS Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Targa Resources, Inc. (NYSE:TRGP) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 65,961 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,064 shares during the quarter. ARS Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Targa Resources were worth $12,170,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in TRGP. Woodline Partners LP lifted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its position in shares of Targa Resources by 157.4% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,931 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $788,000 after purchasing an additional 2,404 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Targa Resources by 6.3% during the second quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,697 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $644,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Targa Resources by 13.1% during the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,521 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $787,000 after purchasing 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 second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 31,881 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $5,550,000 after purchasing an additional 3,163 shares in the last quarter. 92.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Targa Resources Trading Up 1.7%

TRGP opened at $272.04 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $58.39 billion, a PE ratio of 27.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.75. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $244.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $208.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.64, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Targa Resources, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.14 and a 12-month high of $273.11.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The pipeline company reported $2.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.48 by ($0.27). Targa Resources had a net margin of 12.87% and a return on equity of 71.00%. The company had revenue of $4.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.68 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Targa Resources, Inc. will post 10.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Targa Resources Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. This is a positive change from Targa Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. Targa Resources’s payout ratio is presently 50.56%.

Insider Activity

In other Targa Resources news, Director Charles R. Crisp sold 10,602 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.96, for a total transaction of $2,713,687.92. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 66,492 shares in the company, valued at $17,019,292.32. The trade was a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Robert Muraro sold 24,589 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.34, for a total transaction of $5,934,309.26. Following the sale, the insider owned 197,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,640,757.34. The trade was a 11.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 115,531 shares of company stock valued at $27,405,821 over the last quarter. 1.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TRGP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $268.00 target price on shares of Targa Resources in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $285.00 to $289.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $255.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $242.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $241.00 price target on shares of Targa Resources in a report on Friday, February 20th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Targa Resources presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $266.36.

About Targa Resources

Targa Resources Corporation (NYSE: TRGP) is a U.S.-focused midstream energy company that provides gathering, processing, transportation, storage and marketing services for natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and condensate. Its operations span the midstream value chain, including gas gathering systems that collect production from wells, processing plants that separate and recover NGLs and other hydrocarbons, fractionation and purification facilities that prepare NGLs for market, and pipeline and terminal assets that move and store products for producers, refiners and other customers.

The company operates a network of pipelines, processing plants, fractionators and storage facilities that serve producers and consumers across major U.S.