New York State Common Retirement Fund Buys 81,671 Shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 23.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 423,834 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 81,671 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in ONEOK were worth $29,762,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of OKE. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,237,038 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,757,405,000 after buying an additional 5,525,010 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 37.7% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 13,292,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $843,133,000 after buying an additional 3,636,660 shares during the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 3,478.3% in the 3rd quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 3,578,316 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $226,973,000 after buying an additional 3,478,316 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 65.9% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,132,301 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $515,832,000 after buying an additional 3,229,046 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 5,247.1% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,463,929 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $173,017,000 after buying an additional 2,417,849 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

OKE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on ONEOK from $81.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded ONEOK from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. StockNews.com upgraded ONEOK from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of ONEOK from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of ONEOK from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $82.25.

ONEOK Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE OKE opened at $81.38 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $77.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $71.54. ONEOK, Inc. has a twelve month low of $55.91 and a twelve month high of $81.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a market capitalization of $47.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.66, a PEG ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 1.65.

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

ONEOK Dividend Announcement

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

ONEOK declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 17th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the utilities provider to buy up to 4.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at ONEOK

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

ONEOK 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.