Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) Reaches New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Friday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $123.00 to $128.00. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Targa Resources traded as high as $117.95 and last traded at $117.67, with a volume of 1081484 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $116.13.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on TRGP. Barclays raised their price target on Targa Resources from $116.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Targa Resources from $105.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Targa Resources from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Targa Resources from $112.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Targa Resources from $111.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Targa Resources presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Targa Resources news, insider D. Scott Pryor sold 20,000 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.13, for a total value of $2,262,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 136,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,396,766.74. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Targa Resources news, insider D. Scott Pryor sold 20,000 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.13, for a total value of $2,262,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 136,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,396,766.74. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Robert Muraro sold 10,000 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.31, for a total value of $973,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 219,451 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,354,776.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 114,657 shares of company stock valued at $11,680,978 over the last quarter. 1.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Targa Resources

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TRGP. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 200.4% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,577,027 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $478,063,000 after acquiring an additional 3,720,270 shares in the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 60.4% during the 4th quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 9,442,728 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $820,290,000 after acquiring an additional 3,554,989 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Targa Resources during the 4th quarter worth approximately $187,123,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 231.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,378,046 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $119,712,000 after acquiring an additional 962,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 11,513.7% during the 3rd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 636,429 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $54,555,000 after acquiring an additional 630,949 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.13% of the company’s stock.

Targa Resources Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $112.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $96.59. The firm has a market cap of $26.09 billion, a PE ratio of 23.90 and a beta of 2.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.73.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The pipeline company reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.26). Targa Resources had a return on equity of 24.41% and a net margin of 6.86%. The company had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.50 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Targa Resources Corp. will post 5.61 EPS for the current year.

Targa Resources Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Targa Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 29th. Targa Resources’s payout ratio is currently 61.73%.

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.