ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) Shares Sold by Cerity Partners LLC

Cerity Partners LLC lowered its holdings in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 153,892 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 358 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in ONEOK were worth $15,157,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of ONEOK during the fourth quarter worth $539,554,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of ONEOK by 433.4% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,206,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $422,373,000 after buying an additional 3,418,207 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in ONEOK in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $182,694,000. ClearBridge Investments Ltd purchased a new position in ONEOK in the fourth quarter worth approximately $177,045,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its holdings in ONEOK by 445.4% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 1,526,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $153,319,000 after acquiring an additional 1,246,963 shares in the last quarter. 69.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

OKE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $105.00 to $101.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on ONEOK from $109.00 to $102.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on ONEOK from $111.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of ONEOK in a research report on Friday, February 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Finally, US Capital Advisors raised ONEOK from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $105.00.

ONEOK Stock Up 7.6 %

OKE opened at $84.68 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $95.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $99.77. ONEOK, Inc. has a 12 month low of $75.48 and a 12 month high of $118.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The utilities provider reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.11. ONEOK had a net margin of 14.05% and a return on equity of 16.84%. The business had revenue of $7 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.18 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that ONEOK, Inc. will post 5.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from ONEOK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.87%. ONEOK’s payout ratio is currently 79.69%.

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.