Barclays Lowers OGE Energy (NYSE:OGE) to Equal Weight

Barclays lowered shares of OGE Energy (NYSE:OGE) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $34.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH cut OGE Energy from a buy rating to a neutral rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. TheStreet cut OGE Energy from a b rating to a c+ rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, StockNews.com cut OGE Energy from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $33.40.

OGE Energy Stock Up 0.5 %

OGE stock opened at $34.48 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $6.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.54, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.73. OGE Energy has a fifty-two week low of $31.25 and a fifty-two week high of $38.04. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $33.59 and a 200-day moving average of $34.07.

OGE Energy (NYSE:OGE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $566.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $986.67 million. OGE Energy had a return on equity of 9.37% and a net margin of 15.59%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.25 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that OGE Energy will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current year.

OGE Energy Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Monday, April 8th will be given a dividend of $0.418 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 5th. This represents a $1.67 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.85%. OGE Energy’s payout ratio is 80.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Cristina F. Mcquistion sold 4,187 shares of OGE Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.92, for a total value of $142,023.04. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 25,926 shares in the company, valued at approximately $879,409.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On OGE Energy

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of OGE Energy by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $265,000 after purchasing an additional 544 shares during the period. Smith Graham & Co. Investment Advisors LP purchased a new position in OGE Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $3,227,000. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in OGE Energy by 30.4% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,046,440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,878,000 after buying an additional 244,140 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in OGE Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $1,967,000. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. raised its stake in OGE Energy by 46.2% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 104,767 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,492,000 after buying an additional 33,111 shares during the last quarter. 71.84% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About OGE Energy

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.