Ethic Inc. Decreases Stake in Targa Resources, Inc. $TRGP

Ethic Inc. lowered its position in Targa Resources, Inc. (NYSE:TRGP) by 18.5% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 40,160 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 9,096 shares during the period. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Targa Resources were worth $7,003,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TRGP. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in Targa Resources by 64.0% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 3,614,307 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $724,560,000 after acquiring an additional 1,410,747 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Targa Resources in the first quarter worth approximately $196,351,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Targa Resources by 7.5% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,790,955 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,764,673,000 after acquiring an additional 962,631 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Targa Resources by 43.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,748,708 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $551,033,000 after acquiring an additional 834,666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its stake in Targa Resources by 33.8% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,463,271 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $493,812,000 after acquiring an additional 622,096 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.13% of the company’s stock.

Targa Resources Stock Up 2.0%

TRGP stock opened at $154.47 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $162.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $165.61. Targa Resources, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.14 and a 12 month high of $218.51. The company has a market cap of $33.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.12. 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 (NYSE:TRGP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The pipeline company reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.82 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Targa Resources, Inc. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Targa Resources Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 17th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st will be given a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 31st. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. Targa Resources’s dividend payout ratio is 56.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on TRGP shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $178.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Targa Resources in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $205.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. TD Securities assumed coverage on shares of Targa Resources in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Cfra Research upgraded shares of Targa Resources to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Targa Resources presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.50.

Targa Resources 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.