Empirical Finance LLC Acquires 252 Shares of Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP)

Empirical Finance LLC raised its holdings in shares of Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,007 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 252 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Targa Resources were worth $593,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TRGP. Buckley Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Targa Resources by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Buckley Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,925 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,469,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its position in shares of Targa Resources by 9.8% during the third quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 934 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $138,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 4.0% during the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,172 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $321,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 1.0% in the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,911 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Huntington National Bank grew its stake in Targa Resources by 22.9% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 478 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. 92.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on TRGP shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Targa Resources from $172.00 to $199.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $153.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $182.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $173.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Targa Resources to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $169.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider D. Scott Pryor sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.33, for a total value of $5,709,900.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 82,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,793,393.07. This represents a 26.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Robert Muraro sold 2,500 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.20, for a total value of $365,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 174,451 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,504,736.20. This trade represents a 1.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 185,760 shares of company stock valued at $30,026,712. Insiders own 1.39% of the company’s stock.

Targa Resources Stock Up 2.3 %

Targa Resources stock opened at $196.04 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $163.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $140.95. Targa Resources Corp. has a 1-year low of $81.03 and a 1-year high of $197.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.45, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 2.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.05, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.17. Targa Resources had a return on equity of 27.59% and a net margin of 7.65%. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.97 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Targa Resources Corp. will post 6.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Targa Resources Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Targa Resources’s payout ratio is 54.25%.

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.