California Public Employees Retirement System Buys 166,234 Shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 19.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,004,904 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 166,234 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in ONEOK were worth $70,564,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peoples Bank KS bought a new position in ONEOK in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Beacon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 90.7% during the 4th quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 408 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 605.1% during the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 557 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 478 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 283.5% during the 4th quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 510 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 377 shares during the period. Finally, Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC raised its holdings in ONEOK by 1,690.9% in the 3rd quarter. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC now owns 591 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 558 shares during the period. 69.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on OKE. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on ONEOK from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Mizuho increased their price target on ONEOK from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded ONEOK from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Citigroup raised their price objective on ONEOK from $73.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded ONEOK from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.25.

Insider Activity

In other ONEOK news, Director Wayne Thomas Smith acquired 2,700 shares of ONEOK stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $75.25 per share, with a total value of $203,175.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 2,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,175. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

ONEOK Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE OKE opened at $81.38 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $47.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.66, a PEG ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 1.65. ONEOK, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.91 and a 1 year high of $81.81. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $71.54.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share (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 the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that ONEOK, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

ONEOK Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.99 per share. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.87%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.35%.

ONEOK declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share 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 typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.