ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) Trading Up 4.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) rose 4.1% during mid-day trading on Friday after Jefferies Financial Group upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. Jefferies Financial Group now has a $98.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $85.00. ONEOK traded as high as $91.98 and last traded at $92.0140. Approximately 3,032,774 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 36% from the average daily volume of 4,750,458 shares. The stock had previously closed at $88.39.

OKE has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on ONEOK from $79.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on ONEOK from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of ONEOK from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $114.00 to $103.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, ONEOK has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.53.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ONEOK

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC lifted its holdings in ONEOK by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC now owns 5,372 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $395,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Investments LLC raised its position in shares of ONEOK by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Disciplined Investments LLC now owns 21,577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,586,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. TCV Trust & Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of ONEOK by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. TCV Trust & Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $242,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 17,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,782,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. 69.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

ONEOK Trading Up 0.9%

The company’s fifty day moving average is $82.10 and its 200-day moving average is $75.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.46, a P/E/G ratio of 6.73 and a beta of 0.93.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The utilities provider reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $9.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.77 billion. ONEOK had a net margin of 10.09% and a return on equity of 15.29%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.57 EPS. ONEOK has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.040-5.870 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that ONEOK, Inc. will post 5.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 2nd were given a dividend of $1.07 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 2nd. This represents a $4.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.8%. This is a boost from ONEOK’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. ONEOK’s payout ratio is presently 78.97%.

About ONEOK

ONEOK, Inc (NYSE: OKE) is a publicly traded midstream energy company headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The company owns and operates a portfolio of natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) pipelines, processing facilities, fractionators and storage and terminal assets. Its operations are focused on gathering, processing, transporting, fractionating and marketing NGLs and interstate natural gas, providing critical infrastructure that connects hydrocarbon production to refineries, petrochemical plants and other end markets.

ONEOK’s asset base includes pipeline systems and processing plants that move and condition natural gas, along with infrastructure for the transportation, storage and fractionation of NGLs such as ethane, propane and butane.