ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) to Issue Dividend Increase – $1.03 Per Share

ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 22nd,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of 1.03 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.93%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from ONEOK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99.

ONEOK has raised its dividend by an average of 1.9% annually over the last three years. ONEOK has a payout ratio of 59.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect ONEOK to earn $6.01 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.9%.

ONEOK Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:OKE opened at $104.91 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $61.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.95, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.70. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $106.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $96.28. ONEOK has a 52-week low of $67.05 and a 52-week high of $118.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on OKE shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on ONEOK from $112.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $89.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. US Capital Advisors upgraded shares of ONEOK from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of ONEOK in a report on Friday, January 10th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $109.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of ONEOK from $94.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, ONEOK has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $102.92.

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.