California Public Employees Retirement System Cuts Stock Holdings in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its position in shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 977,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 68,878 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.17% of ONEOK worth $98,153,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of ONEOK by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,120,264 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,040,075,000 after purchasing an additional 558,789 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in ONEOK by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,414,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,848,844,000 after acquiring an additional 934,007 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of ONEOK by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,680,875 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,242,449,000 after acquiring an additional 138,430 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of ONEOK in the 4th quarter worth approximately $539,554,000. Finally, Amundi lifted its stake in ONEOK by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,105,596 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $422,261,000 after purchasing an additional 207,324 shares during the last quarter. 69.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on OKE. Citigroup started coverage on ONEOK in a research note on Friday, February 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $110.00 target price on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of ONEOK from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of ONEOK from $111.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $99.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on ONEOK from $109.00 to $102.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.00.

ONEOK Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of OKE opened at $99.28 on Tuesday. ONEOK, Inc. has a 1-year low of $76.23 and a 1-year high of $118.07. The company has a market capitalization of $61.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $98.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.30.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 24th. The utilities provider reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.11. ONEOK had a net margin of 14.05% and a return on equity of 16.84%. The company had revenue of $7 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.18 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that ONEOK, Inc. will post 5.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a boost from ONEOK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.69%.

ONEOK 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.