ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $101.00.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on OKE. UBS Group boosted their price objective on ONEOK from $112.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of ONEOK from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $107.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of ONEOK from $85.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on ONEOK from $89.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on ONEOK in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $105.00 price objective on the stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. National Pension Service lifted its position in ONEOK by 1.6% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 763,833 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $69,608,000 after buying an additional 12,349 shares during the last quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 141,236 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,871,000 after acquiring an additional 5,175 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LP bought a new position in ONEOK during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,225,000. Point72 Europe London LLP purchased a new stake in ONEOK in the 2nd quarter worth about $15,008,000. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV lifted its stake in ONEOK by 11.1% in the third quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 54,557 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,972,000 after purchasing an additional 5,451 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

ONEOK Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of ONEOK stock opened at $100.83 on Friday. ONEOK has a 1-year low of $67.05 and a 1-year high of $118.07. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $104.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $93.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $58.90 billion, a PE ratio of 21.09, a P/E/G ratio of 5.24 and a beta of 1.69.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $5.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.81 billion. ONEOK had a net margin of 14.05% and a return on equity of 16.84%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.99 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that ONEOK will post 5.1 earnings per share for the current year.

ONEOK Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were paid a dividend of $0.99 per share. This represents a $3.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. ONEOK’s payout ratio is 82.85%.

About ONEOK

ONEOK, Inc engages in gathering, processing, fractionation, storage, transportation, and marketing of natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) in the United States. It operates through four segments: Natural Gas Gathering and Processing, Natural Gas Liquids, Natural Gas Pipelines, and Refined Products and Crude.