L & S Advisors Inc Reduces Holdings in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

L & S Advisors Inc lowered its position in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 40,666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 308 shares during the period. L & S Advisors Inc’s holdings in ONEOK were worth $4,083,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in ONEOK during the fourth quarter worth about $539,554,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of ONEOK during the 4th quarter worth approximately $182,694,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 445.4% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 1,526,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $153,319,000 after purchasing an additional 1,246,963 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in ONEOK by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,414,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,848,844,000 after buying an additional 934,007 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC boosted its stake in ONEOK by 217.2% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 1,235,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $123,995,000 after buying an additional 845,715 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

OKE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. US Capital Advisors raised ONEOK from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of ONEOK from $105.00 to $101.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of ONEOK in a research note on Friday, February 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Wolfe Research raised shares of ONEOK from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on ONEOK from $111.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $105.00.

ONEOK Stock Performance

Shares of ONEOK stock opened at $98.47 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.60, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $98.32 and a 200 day moving average of $100.17. ONEOK, Inc. has a 12 month low of $76.23 and a 12 month high of $118.07.

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

ONEOK Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from ONEOK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.69%.

About ONEOK

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.