Royal Bank of Canada Purchases 896,009 Shares of ONEOK, Inc. $OKE

Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 38.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,202,889 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 896,009 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada’s holdings in ONEOK were worth $289,507,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of OKE. Aberdeen Group plc lifted its holdings in ONEOK by 46.0% during the 4th quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 957,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,388,000 after purchasing an additional 301,654 shares in the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd grew its holdings in ONEOK by 219.5% during the 4th quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,522,404 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $111,897,000 after buying an additional 1,045,976 shares in the last quarter. Triune Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of ONEOK during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,151,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of ONEOK by 46.3% during the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 11,365,304 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $835,350,000 after buying an additional 3,596,089 shares during the period. Finally, Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 360.0% in the fourth quarter. Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC now owns 36,216 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,815,000 after buying an additional 28,343 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

ONEOK Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of OKE opened at $90.03 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $89.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.43. The company has a market capitalization of $56.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.05, a P/E/G ratio of 4.80 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.56. ONEOK, Inc. has a 1-year low of $64.02 and a 1-year high of $96.07.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.23 billion. ONEOK had a return on equity of 16.06% and a net margin of 10.03%.During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.04 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that ONEOK, Inc. will post 5.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 3rd will be given a $1.07 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $4.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.8%. ONEOK’s payout ratio is 76.29%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

OKE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price objective on shares of ONEOK in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of ONEOK from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of ONEOK from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $92.00 to $89.00 in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of ONEOK from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of ONEOK from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $91.81.

ONEOK Profile

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.