ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) Given Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the fifteen analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $105.00.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on OKE. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of ONEOK from $110.00 to $107.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wolfe Research upgraded ONEOK from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $110.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Barclays cut their target price on ONEOK from $105.00 to $101.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $111.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on ONEOK from $110.00 to $102.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ONEOK

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,120,264 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $7,040,075,000 after buying an additional 558,789 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in ONEOK by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,414,781 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,848,844,000 after purchasing an additional 934,007 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in ONEOK by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,037,890 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,405,697,000 after purchasing an additional 357,015 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 15.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,535,861 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $656,200,000 after acquiring an additional 864,392 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in ONEOK during the fourth quarter worth $539,554,000. Institutional investors own 69.13% of the company's stock.

ONEOK Price Performance

OKE traded up $1.49 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $81.74. The stock had a trading volume of 682,202 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,218,106. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.81. ONEOK has a 1 year low of $75.48 and a 1 year high of $118.07. The business has a fifty day moving average of $89.62 and a 200 day moving average of $98.26. The company has a market cap of $51.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 1.01.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.28 by ($0.24). ONEOK had a return on equity of 16.84% and a net margin of 14.05%. The firm had revenue of $6.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.09 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that ONEOK will post 5.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.04%. ONEOK's payout ratio is currently 80.47%.

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.