ONEOK, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.99 (NYSE:OKE)

ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.99 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.08%.

ONEOK has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 2 consecutive years. ONEOK has a dividend payout ratio of 72.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect ONEOK to earn $5.52 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 71.7%.

ONEOK Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE OKE opened at $77.88 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. ONEOK has a 52 week low of $55.91 and a 52 week high of $80.81. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $76.53 and its 200 day moving average is $70.91. The company has a market cap of $45.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.03, a PEG ratio of 4.75 and a beta of 1.65.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.21 by ($0.03). ONEOK had a return on equity of 22.57% and a net margin of 15.04%. The firm had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that ONEOK will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Wayne Thomas Smith purchased 2,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were bought at an average price of $75.25 per share, for a total transaction of $203,175.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 2,700 shares in the company, valued at approximately $203,175. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ONEOK

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of OKE. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in ONEOK by 118,109.3% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 22,562,603 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,482,363,000 after acquiring an additional 22,543,516 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in ONEOK by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,676,934 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,892,714,000 after acquiring an additional 10,439,896 shares during the period. Cowa LLC lifted its stake in ONEOK by 9,775.0% during the 1st quarter. Cowa LLC now owns 5,324,428 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,761,000 after acquiring an additional 5,270,510 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in ONEOK during the 4th quarter valued at about $139,536,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in ONEOK by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,978,583 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $419,816,000 after acquiring an additional 1,574,198 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

ONEOK declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 17th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the utilities provider to purchase up to 4.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $81.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $71.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $82.25.

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.