Merit Financial Group LLC Grows Stock Holdings in OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE:OGE)

Merit Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE:OGE) by 14.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,505 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 810 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in OGE Energy were worth $268,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in OGE. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in OGE Energy by 3,834.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 748,608 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,708,000 after purchasing an additional 729,579 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its stake in shares of OGE Energy by 25.2% during the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 1,318,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $54,087,000 after acquiring an additional 265,115 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of OGE Energy by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,836,303 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $280,425,000 after acquiring an additional 185,069 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of OGE Energy by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 605,590 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $24,841,000 after acquiring an additional 154,000 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI acquired a new stake in shares of OGE Energy in the third quarter worth approximately $4,106,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.84% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on OGE. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of OGE Energy from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI raised shares of OGE Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at OGE Energy

In other OGE Energy news, VP Cristina F. Mcquistion sold 5,008 shares of OGE Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.84, for a total value of $214,542.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 20,918 shares in the company, valued at $896,127.12. The trade was a 19.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

OGE Energy Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of OGE opened at $43.15 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $42.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.62. OGE Energy Corp. has a one year low of $32.06 and a one year high of $44.41. The company has a market capitalization of $8.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.86.

OGE Energy (NYSE:OGE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by ($0.03). OGE Energy had a net margin of 13.89% and a return on equity of 8.59%. The company had revenue of $965.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that OGE Energy Corp. will post 2.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OGE Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, January 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.4213 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, January 6th. This represents a $1.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.91%. OGE Energy’s payout ratio is 87.05%.

OGE Energy Company Profile

OGE Energy Corp., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy services provider in the United States. The company generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric energy. In addition, it provides retail electric service to approximately 896,000 customers, which covers a service area of approximately 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas; and owns and operates coal-fired, natural gas-fired, wind-powered, and solar-powered generating assets.