Bank of America Begins Coverage on ONEOK (NYSE:OKE)

Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $105.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock.

OKE has been the subject of several other reports. Morgan Stanley raised shares of ONEOK from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $103.00 to $111.00 in a report on Monday, September 16th. Tudor Pickering raised shares of ONEOK to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of ONEOK from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of ONEOK from $88.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of ONEOK from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ONEOK currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.77.

ONEOK Price Performance

Shares of OKE stock opened at $97.23 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $56.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.18, a P/E/G ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.41. ONEOK has a 1-year low of $63.33 and a 1-year high of $98.01. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $91.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $84.68.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $4.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.52 billion. ONEOK had a net margin of 13.41% and a return on equity of 15.54%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.04 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that ONEOK will post 5.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a $0.99 dividend. This represents a $3.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 86.27%.

Insider Transactions at ONEOK

In other news, Director Pattye L. Moore sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.01, for a total value of $310,901.79. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of ONEOK

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Godsey & Gibb Inc. lifted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 53.2% in the 3rd quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. now owns 1,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $158,000 after acquiring an additional 603 shares during the period. Buckley Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Buckley Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,485 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,320,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN lifted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 3,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. CNB Bank acquired a new stake in shares of ONEOK in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $91,000. Finally, New Century Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in ONEOK during the third quarter valued at approximately $276,000. 69.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.