Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Takes $7.01 Million Position in Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 47,337 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,006,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Caxton Associates LP bought a new stake in Targa Resources in the 2nd quarter worth $2,323,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Targa Resources by 215.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,052 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,478,000 after purchasing an additional 21,200 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Targa Resources by 6.5% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 444,530 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $49,783,000 after purchasing an additional 27,164 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Targa Resources during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,151,000. Finally, Braun Stacey Associates Inc. bought a new position in Targa Resources during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $11,042,000. 92.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Robert Muraro sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.20, for a total transaction of $365,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 174,451 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,504,736.20. This represents a 1.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Julie H. Boushka sold 3,260 shares of Targa Resources stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.74, for a total value of $621,812.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 35,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,703,175.82. The trade was a 8.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 185,760 shares of company stock worth $30,026,712 over the last 90 days. 1.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Targa Resources Stock Down 0.2 %

TRGP stock opened at $207.34 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $168.18 and a 200 day moving average of $143.27. The firm has a market cap of $45.21 billion, a PE ratio of 37.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 2.24. Targa Resources Corp. has a twelve month low of $81.03 and a twelve month high of $209.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.05.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.24 billion. Targa Resources had a return on equity of 27.59% and a net margin of 7.65%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Targa Resources Corp. will post 6.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Targa Resources Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. Targa Resources’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on TRGP shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Targa Resources from $190.00 to $224.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $173.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Targa Resources from $153.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Targa Resources in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $182.00 price target on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Targa Resources from $147.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Targa Resources presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $176.50.

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.