Norges Bank Acquires New Holdings in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 4,243,059 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $297,948,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of ONEOK by 10.3% in the third 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 period. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of ONEOK by 37.7% in the third 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 period. Blackstone Inc. increased its position in ONEOK by 3,478.3% during the 3rd quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 3,578,316 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $226,973,000 after purchasing an additional 3,478,316 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 3,229,046 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 2,417,849 shares in the last quarter. 69.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on OKE. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $81.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $73.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. US Capital Advisors lowered shares of ONEOK from an “overweight” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of ONEOK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of ONEOK from $71.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ONEOK currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.58.

ONEOK Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE OKE opened at $83.01 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $79.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $73.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $48.45 billion, a PE ratio of 19.30, a PEG ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 1.64. ONEOK, Inc. has a 52-week low of $56.19 and a 52-week high of $83.31.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $4.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.84 billion. ONEOK had a net margin of 12.54% and a return on equity of 15.94%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.34 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that ONEOK, Inc. will post 4.94 EPS for the current year.

ONEOK Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st were paid a dividend of $0.99 per share. This represents a $3.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 30th. ONEOK’s payout ratio is 92.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Wayne Thomas Smith bought 2,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 2,700 shares in the company, valued at $203,175. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.