Saxon Interests Inc. Makes New $370,000 Investment in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

Saxon Interests Inc. bought a new stake in shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 5,272 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $370,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of ONEOK by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,237,038 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,757,405,000 after purchasing an additional 5,525,010 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of ONEOK by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 46,311,090 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,858,320,000 after purchasing an additional 285,789 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of ONEOK by 118,109.3% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 22,562,603 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,482,363,000 after purchasing an additional 22,543,516 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in shares of ONEOK by 37.7% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 13,292,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $843,133,000 after purchasing an additional 3,636,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of ONEOK by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,255,430 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $650,502,000 after purchasing an additional 889,110 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on OKE shares. US Capital Advisors cut ONEOK from an “overweight” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Citigroup raised their target price on ONEOK from $73.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on ONEOK from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Mizuho raised their target price on ONEOK from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded ONEOK from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $81.73.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Wayne Thomas Smith acquired 2,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $75.25 per share, for a total transaction of $203,175.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 2,700 shares in the company, valued at approximately $203,175. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

ONEOK Price Performance

Shares of ONEOK stock traded up $0.57 on Thursday, hitting $80.17. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,060,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,102,328. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.90. ONEOK, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.91 and a 1 year high of $80.53. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $73.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $69.49. The company has a market capitalization of $46.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.65.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.21 by ($0.03). ONEOK had a return on equity of 22.57% and a net margin of 15.04%. The firm had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that ONEOK, Inc. will post 4.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 30th were issued a $0.99 dividend. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.94%. This is a boost from ONEOK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.96. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, January 29th. ONEOK’s payout ratio is presently 71.35%.

ONEOK declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 17th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the utilities provider to purchase up to 4.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

ONEOK Company 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.