Kentucky Retirement Systems Trims Stake in Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP)

Kentucky Retirement Systems cut its position in shares of Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) by 8.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 15,262 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 1,446 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Targa Resources were worth $2,259,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TRGP. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Targa Resources by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,015,992 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,025,521,000 after buying an additional 201,817 shares during the period. Caxton Associates LP bought a new position in Targa Resources in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,323,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Targa Resources by 215.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,052 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,478,000 after purchasing an additional 21,200 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Targa Resources by 6.5% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 444,530 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $49,783,000 after purchasing an additional 27,164 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Targa Resources during the first quarter valued at $1,151,000. 92.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Targa Resources news, CAO Julie H. Boushka sold 3,260 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.74, for a total transaction of $621,812.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 35,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,703,175.82. The trade was a 8.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider D. Scott Pryor sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 82,979 shares in the company, valued at $15,793,393.07. This represents a 26.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 185,760 shares of company stock valued at $30,026,712. 1.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Targa Resources Stock Up 2.3 %

NYSE:TRGP opened at $196.04 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $163.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $140.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.05, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.77. Targa Resources Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $81.03 and a fifty-two week high of $197.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 2.24.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.24 billion. Targa Resources had a net margin of 7.65% and a return on equity of 27.59%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.97 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Targa Resources Corp. will post 6.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Targa Resources Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. Targa Resources’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $182.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $155.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Targa Resources from $175.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Targa Resources from $172.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Targa Resources in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $182.00 price target on the stock. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $169.79.

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.