Insider Selling: Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) Insider Sells 17,500 Shares of Stock

Targa Resources, Inc. (NYSE:TRGP) insider D. Scott Pryor sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.92, for a total transaction of $4,006,100.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 31,938 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,311,246.96. The trade was a 35.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Targa Resources Stock Performance

Targa Resources stock traded up $4.33 during trading on Friday, reaching $235.55. The company had a trading volume of 2,369,548 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,396,758. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.21. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $198.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $177.35. Targa Resources, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.14 and a 52 week high of $237.50.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The pipeline company reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.35 by $0.16. Targa Resources had a return on equity of 65.48% and a net margin of 10.88%.The business had revenue of $4.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Targa Resources, Inc. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Targa Resources Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 30th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 30th. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. Targa Resources’s payout ratio is currently 46.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on TRGP. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $213.00 to $243.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $242.00 price target on shares of Targa Resources in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $266.00 price objective on shares of Targa Resources in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Targa Resources in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Targa Resources from $207.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $238.50.

Institutional Trading of Targa Resources

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TRGP. Woodline Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 40.7% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 18,423 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,693,000 after purchasing an additional 5,327 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its position in Targa Resources by 157.4% during 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. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 15.3% in the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 2,310 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $402,000 after buying an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 19.8% in the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,686 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,034,000 after buying an additional 1,928 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC increased its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 19,891 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,463,000 after buying an additional 661 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.13% of the company’s stock.

About Targa Resources

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.