ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases New Stake in ONEOK, Inc. $OKE

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 2,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in ONEOK by 7.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,196,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,461,043,000 after acquiring an additional 5,076,705 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of ONEOK during the first quarter worth approximately $440,535,000. Boston Partners acquired a new position in ONEOK in the 1st quarter valued at $353,596,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in ONEOK by 13.8% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,957,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,079,376,000 after buying an additional 2,542,449 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in ONEOK by 51.9% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,388,987 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $633,915,000 after buying an additional 2,182,081 shares during the period. 69.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of ONEOK from $87.00 to $82.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ONEOK in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of ONEOK from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on ONEOK in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $75.00 price target for the company. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on ONEOK in a research note on Monday, July 7th. They set a “hold” rating and a $91.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $99.00.

ONEOK Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of OKE opened at $72.88 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $80.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 0.59 and a quick ratio of 0.46. ONEOK, Inc. has a one year low of $70.63 and a one year high of $118.07. The company has a market cap of $45.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.01.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. ONEOK had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 11.06%.The firm had revenue of $8.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.20 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.33 EPS. ONEOK has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.370-5.370 EPS. Research analysts forecast that ONEOK, Inc. will post 5.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.7%. ONEOK’s payout ratio is presently 80.31%.

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.