ONEOK Partners (OKS) At 52-Week High On Growth Initiatives

ONEOK Partners, L.P. (NYSE:OKS) scaled a new 52-week high of $40.60 in yesterday???s trading session before closing slightly lower at $39.96. The master limited partnership is engaged in the business of gathering, processing, storage and transportation of natural gas in the U.S. The stock has delivered a one-year return of about 26.7%.

Over the past 52 weeks, ONEOK Partner???s units have ranged from a low of $21.86 on Dec 17, 2015 to a high of $40.60 on Jun 29, 2016. The average volume of units traded over the last three months is approximately 0.8 million.

What???s Driving the Stock?

ONEOK Partners??? is benefiting from its fee-based earnings. ONEOK Partners has beaten estimates in three out of the last four quarters, averaging a positive surprise of 9.30%.

ONEOK PARTNERS Price

ONEOK Partners continues to expand its operations through strategic investments and conversion to fee-based contracts to counter the ongoing softness in commodity prices. A plethora of projects, primarily in the mineral-rich areas of Williston Basin and Permian Basin among others, will continue to support its performance.

The partnership projects capital expenditure of $600 million for 2016. Continued investment in growth projects will allow it to serve more upstream players, thereby ensuring higher distribution for ONEOK Inc. (NYSE:OKE) .

In addition to organic growth projects, ONEOK Partners expects to benefit from continued volume growth, which will increase its distributable cash flow and boost unitholder value.

The first phase of the Roadrunner Gas Transmission, along with a compressor station expansion project on the Midwestern Gas Transmission pipeline, was completed in March. These projects have increased the pipeline???s capacity by 170 million cubic feet per day.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

ONEOK Partners currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A couple of better-ranked stocks in the same space are Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP (NYSE:BWP) and Rose Rock Midstream, L.P. (NYSE:RRMS) , both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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