Energy Income Partners LLC Reduces Position in Targa Resources, Inc. $TRGP

Key Points

• Energy Income Partners LLC has reduced its stake in Targa Resources, Inc. by 2.7%, selling 12,320 shares, leaving it with 437,279 shares, which constitutes 1.7% of its total holdings.
• Targa Resources recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.00, significantly up from the prior dividend of $0.12, representing a 2.4% yield.
• The company reported earnings of $2.87 per share for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations, while revenue totaled $4.26 billion, below forecasts.

Energy Income Partners LLC cut its holdings in shares of Targa Resources, Inc. (NYSE:TRGP - Free Report) by 2.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 437,279 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 12,320 shares during the quarter. Targa Resources accounts for about 1.7% of Energy Income Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Energy Income Partners LLC owned about 0.20% of Targa Resources worth $87,661,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. MAI Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 40.9% in the first quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 53,355 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $10,696,000 after buying an additional 15,488 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 9.1% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 4,346 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $871,000 after buying an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 8.1% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,478 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $697,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 1,431.0% in the first quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 228,720 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $45,851,000 after buying an additional 213,781 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 26.9% in the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 34,174 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $6,851,000 after buying an additional 7,244 shares during the last quarter. 92.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Targa Resources Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of TRGP stock traded down $3.20 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $163.52. The company had a trading volume of 1,111,503 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,457,230. The company's fifty day moving average is $167.29 and its 200 day moving average is $173.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.93, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.56. Targa Resources, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.11 and a fifty-two week high of $218.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.19 billion, a PE ratio of 23.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.20.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The pipeline company reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.92. Targa Resources had a net margin of 8.99% and a return on equity of 43.35%. The firm had revenue of $4.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.82 billion. Research analysts expect that Targa Resources, Inc. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Targa Resources Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were given a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is an increase from Targa Resources's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Targa Resources's dividend payout ratio is 56.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on TRGP. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $259.00 to $228.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Targa Resources in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $212.00 to $207.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $205.00 price objective (up previously from $198.00) on shares of Targa Resources in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $227.00 to $197.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Targa Resources currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $208.86.

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.