Bank of America Initiates Coverage on ONEOK (NYSE:OKE)

Stock analysts at Bank of America began coverage on shares of ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) in a report released on Thursday, StockNewsAPI reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $105.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 9.78% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on OKE. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $88.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $89.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Tudor Pickering upgraded shares of ONEOK to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of ONEOK from $85.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.77.

ONEOK Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of ONEOK stock opened at $95.65 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $91.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.44. ONEOK has a 1 year low of $63.33 and a 1 year high of $98.01. The stock has a market cap of $55.83 billion, a PE ratio of 22.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.68 and a beta of 1.67.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.12. ONEOK had a net margin of 13.41% and a return on equity of 15.54%. The firm had revenue of $4.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.04 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that ONEOK will post 5.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at ONEOK

In other ONEOK news, Director Pattye L. Moore sold 3,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.01, for a total value of $310,901.79. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. raised its stake in shares of ONEOK by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 6,795,313 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $554,158,000 after acquiring an additional 232,043 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP raised its position in ONEOK by 28.7% in the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 3,705,367 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $297,059,000 after purchasing an additional 825,464 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in ONEOK by 12.3% during the first quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 3,465,068 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $277,795,000 after purchasing an additional 378,509 shares in the last quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC boosted its holdings in ONEOK by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 3,434,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $275,362,000 after acquiring an additional 319,487 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in ONEOK by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,340,155 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $272,377,000 after acquiring an additional 132,326 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

About ONEOK

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.