Targa Resources, Inc. (NYSE:TRGP) Receives $266.36 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Targa Resources, Inc. (NYSE:TRGP) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $266.3571.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on TRGP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $242.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $281.00 target price on shares of Targa Resources in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $228.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $200.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $327.00 to $331.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th.

Targa Resources Price Performance

Shares of TRGP opened at $276.62 on Friday. Targa Resources has a fifty-two week low of $144.14 and a fifty-two week high of $280.00. The company has a market capitalization of $59.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $248.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $212.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.64, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.72.

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

Targa Resources Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Charles R. Crisp sold 10,602 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director directly owned 66,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,019,292.32. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Patrick J. Mcdonie sold 31,537 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.36, for a total transaction of $7,548,696.32. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 305,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,043,815.68. This represents a 9.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 115,531 shares of company stock valued at $27,405,821 over the last ninety days. 1.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Targa Resources by 1.5% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,382,289 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,755,169,000 after purchasing an additional 422,075 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Targa Resources by 9.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,643,139 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,291,012,000 after purchasing an additional 1,620,253 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Targa Resources by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,668,233 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,337,289,000 after purchasing an additional 162,878 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Targa Resources by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,867,345 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,078,497,000 after purchasing an additional 45,495 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Targa Resources during the fourth quarter worth about $735,758,000. 92.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.