ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) Lowered to “Equal Weight” Rating by Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $107.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Mizuho raised shares of ONEOK to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of ONEOK from $94.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on ONEOK from $88.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group boosted their target price on ONEOK from $112.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on ONEOK in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $105.00 target price on the stock. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ONEOK currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.00.

ONEOK Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE OKE traded up $0.88 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $98.52. The stock had a trading volume of 1,082,352 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,802,287. ONEOK has a twelve month low of $67.05 and a twelve month high of $118.07. 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $103.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $92.28. The company has a market cap of $57.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 5.24 and a beta of 1.69.

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

ONEOK Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 4.02%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.85%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of ONEOK by 3.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,480,774 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,593,023,000 after purchasing an additional 661,854 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in ONEOK by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,680,875 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,242,449,000 after buying an additional 138,430 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. increased its position in ONEOK by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 6,795,313 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $554,158,000 after buying an additional 232,043 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 0.3% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,751,172 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $341,844,000 after buying an additional 11,189 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of ONEOK by 4.1% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,340,155 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $272,377,000 after acquiring an additional 132,326 shares during the period. 69.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

ONEOK Company Profile

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.