Yousif Capital Management LLC Trims Holdings in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

Yousif Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 9.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 76,797 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,592 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in ONEOK were worth $5,393,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in ONEOK by 10.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,237,038 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,757,405,000 after purchasing an additional 5,525,010 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in ONEOK by 37.7% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 13,292,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $843,133,000 after purchasing an additional 3,636,660 shares during the period. Blackstone Inc. raised its position in ONEOK by 3,478.3% in the third quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 3,578,316 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $226,973,000 after purchasing an additional 3,478,316 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of ONEOK by 65.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,132,301 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $515,832,000 after buying an additional 3,229,046 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of ONEOK by 5,247.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,463,929 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $173,017,000 after buying an additional 2,417,849 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ONEOK news, Director Wayne Thomas Smith purchased 2,700 shares of ONEOK stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $75.25 per share, with a total value of $203,175.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 2,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,175. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

OKE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised ONEOK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on ONEOK from $81.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Wolfe Research raised ONEOK from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Barclays boosted their target price on ONEOK from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on ONEOK from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ONEOK has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.25.

ONEOK Stock Up 0.5 %

ONEOK stock opened at $81.38 on Friday. ONEOK, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $55.91 and a fifty-two week high of $81.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.90. The company has a market capitalization of $47.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.66, a PEG ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 1.65. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.54.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.21 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. ONEOK had a net margin of 15.04% and a return on equity of 22.57%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that ONEOK, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

ONEOK declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 17th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the utilities provider to purchase up to 4.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

ONEOK Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.99 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $3.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.87%. ONEOK’s payout ratio is 71.35%.

ONEOK 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.