ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) Plans $0.99 Quarterly Dividend

ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 16th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.99 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.11%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 1st.

ONEOK has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.7% annually over the last three years. ONEOK has a payout ratio of 65.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect ONEOK to earn $5.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 70.2%.

ONEOK Trading Up 0.8 %

OKE stock opened at $96.44 on Friday. ONEOK has a one year low of $63.33 and a one year high of $98.01. The company has a market capitalization of $56.29 billion, a PE ratio of 22.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.68 and a beta of 1.67. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $91.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.62.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on OKE. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of ONEOK from $88.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of ONEOK in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $105.00 target price on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of ONEOK from $82.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of ONEOK from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $103.00 to $111.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $89.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Eight equities 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, ONEOK has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $94.77.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Pattye L. Moore sold 3,379 shares of ONEOK stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.01, for a total transaction of $310,901.79. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.20% 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.