Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Purchases 65,346 Shares of Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its position in Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) by 8.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 876,099 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 65,346 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Targa Resources were worth $156,384,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of TRGP. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Targa Resources by 0.9% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,685 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,153,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Targa Resources by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,217 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $396,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. grew its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 3,026 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $540,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Targa Resources by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,172 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $321,000 after buying an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Catalina Capital Group LLC raised its stake in Targa Resources by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Catalina Capital Group LLC now owns 2,239 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $400,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on TRGP shares. Scotiabank began coverage on Targa Resources in a research note on Friday, January 10th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $218.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $204.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. US Capital Advisors cut shares of Targa Resources from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Targa Resources from $171.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $185.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Targa Resources has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $207.00.

Targa Resources Stock Performance

Shares of TRGP opened at $195.49 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.06, a PEG ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 2.29. 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 Corp. has a one year low of $99.04 and a one year high of $218.51. The business has a fifty day moving average of $198.29 and a 200 day moving average of $179.02.

Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The pipeline company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.90 by ($0.46). The business had revenue of $4.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.48 billion. Targa Resources had a return on equity of 28.67% and a net margin of 7.81%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Targa Resources Corp. will post 8.15 EPS for the current year.

Targa Resources Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. Targa Resources’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.26%.

Insider Transactions at Targa Resources

In other Targa Resources news, Director Waters S. Iv Davis sold 2,190 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.26, for a total transaction of $429,809.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,899 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $568,957.74. The trade was a 43.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer R. Kneale sold 29,887 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.42, for a total transaction of $5,750,856.54. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 227,269 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,731,100.98. This trade represents a 11.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 115,914 shares of company stock worth $22,613,288 in the last 90 days. 1.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.