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

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

ONEOK has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.7% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 2 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 Price Performance

OKE opened at $77.88 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $76.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.91. ONEOK has a 1 year low of $55.91 and a 1 year high of $80.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.45 billion, a PE ratio of 14.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.75 and a beta of 1.65.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.21 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. ONEOK had a return on equity of 22.57% and a net margin of 15.04%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that ONEOK will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Wayne Thomas Smith acquired 2,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $75.25 per share, for a total transaction of $203,175.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,700 shares in the company, valued at approximately $203,175. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of ONEOK by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,676,934 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,892,714,000 after buying an additional 10,439,896 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,482,363,000 after buying an additional 22,543,516 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of ONEOK by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,703,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $506,136,000 after buying an additional 610,219 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of ONEOK by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,288,822 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $514,810,000 after buying an additional 527,138 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of ONEOK by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,978,583 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $419,816,000 after buying an additional 1,574,198 shares during the period. 69.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ONEOK announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 17th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the utilities provider to reacquire up to 4.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on OKE shares. Wolfe Research raised ONEOK from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Barclays lifted their target price on ONEOK from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Mizuho lifted their target price on ONEOK from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. US Capital Advisors downgraded ONEOK from an “overweight” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on ONEOK from $81.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, ONEOK currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.