Targa Resources, Inc. $TRGP Shares Acquired by Allstate Corp

Allstate Corp raised its position in shares of Targa Resources, Inc. (NYSE:TRGP) by 99.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 16,282 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,135 shares during the quarter. Allstate Corp’s holdings in Targa Resources were worth $3,004,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in TRGP. Woodline Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 40.7% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 18,423 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,693,000 after acquiring an additional 5,327 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth increased its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 157.4% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,931 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $788,000 after purchasing an additional 2,404 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 6.3% in the second quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,697 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 13.1% in the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,521 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $787,000 after purchasing an additional 524 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 11.0% in the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 31,881 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,550,000 after purchasing an additional 3,163 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Targa Resources from $327.00 to $331.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Targa Resources from $264.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group increased their price target on Targa Resources from $228.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. Seaport Research Partners reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Targa Resources in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $241.00 price target on shares of Targa Resources in a report on Friday, February 20th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $269.21.

Insider Transactions at Targa Resources

In other news, Director Charles R. Crisp sold 10,602 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $17,019,292.32. This trade represents a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Patrick J. Mcdonie sold 31,537 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.36, for a total value of $7,548,696.32. Following the transaction, the insider owned 305,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $73,043,815.68. This represents a 9.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 66,728 shares of company stock worth $16,196,694 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.37% of the company’s stock.

Targa Resources Trading Down 2.4%

TRGP opened at $263.33 on Thursday. Targa Resources, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.14 and a 52 week high of $280.00. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $250.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $215.27. The firm has a market cap of $56.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.75. 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 (NYSE:TRGP) last released 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 analysts’ expectations of $4.68 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Targa Resources, Inc. will post 10.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Targa Resources Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were given a dividend of $1.25 per share. This is an increase from Targa Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. Targa Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.56%.

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.