Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Trims Holdings in Targa Resources, Inc. $TRGP

Key Points

• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS trimmed its Targa Resources stake by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 5,152 shares and ending with 366,389 shares valued at about $67.6 million.
• Wall Street remains mostly positive on TRGP, with 15 Buy ratings and 3 Hold ratings; the consensus view is a Moderate Buy and the average target price is $269.21.
• Targa Resources reported mixed quarterly results, missing EPS and revenue estimates, but it recently increased its quarterly dividend to $1.25 per share, bringing the annualized payout to $5.00 and a 2.0% yield.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS trimmed its stake in Targa Resources, Inc. (NYSE:TRGP - Free Report) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 366,389 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 5,152 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS owned about 0.17% of Targa Resources worth $67,599,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,382,289 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $4,755,169,000 after acquiring an additional 422,075 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 9.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,643,139 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $3,291,012,000 after purchasing an additional 1,620,253 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,867,345 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,078,497,000 after purchasing an additional 45,495 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Targa Resources in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $735,758,000. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 9.9% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 2,360,311 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $395,447,000 after purchasing an additional 212,887 shares in the last quarter. 92.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on TRGP shares. US Capital Advisors cut shares of Targa Resources from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Friday. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday. Seaport Research Partners restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Targa Resources in a report on Monday, May 4th. BMO Capital Markets restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $241.00 price objective on shares of Targa Resources in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $264.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $269.21.

Targa Resources Trading Down 2.7%

NYSE TRGP opened at $255.14 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.64. Targa Resources, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.14 and a 52 week high of $280.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.76 billion, a PE ratio of 25.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $251.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $216.18.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The pipeline company reported $2.21 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $4.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.68 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Targa Resources, Inc. will post 10.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Targa Resources Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $1.25 per share. This is a boost from Targa Resources's previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Targa Resources's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.56%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Patrick J. Mcdonie sold 31,537 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.36, for a total transaction of $7,548,696.32. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 305,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,043,815.68. The trade was a 9.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Robert Muraro sold 24,589 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 5th. The stock was 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 $47,640,757.34. This represents a 11.08% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 66,728 shares of company stock worth $16,196,694 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.37% of the company's stock.

Targa Resources Company Profile

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.

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