King Luther Capital Management Corp Lowers Stock Position in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

King Luther Capital Management Corp lessened its stake in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 18.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 22,848 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,222 shares during the quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in ONEOK were worth $2,294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in ONEOK during the fourth quarter valued at about $182,694,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,414,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,848,844,000 after buying an additional 934,007 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in ONEOK in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $47,957,000. National Pension Service boosted its stake in ONEOK by 65.3% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,262,741 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $126,779,000 after buying an additional 498,908 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Yaupon Capital Management LP bought a new position in ONEOK during the third quarter valued at approximately $45,194,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on OKE. Wolfe Research raised shares of ONEOK from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Barclays cut their price target 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. UBS Group boosted their target price on ONEOK from $112.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on ONEOK from $107.00 to $102.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on ONEOK in a research note on Friday, February 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price target on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $103.31.

ONEOK Stock Performance

NYSE:OKE opened at $93.00 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $99.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.48. The stock has a market cap of $58.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 1.70. ONEOK, Inc. has a twelve month low of $76.23 and a twelve month high of $118.07.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last announced its earnings results 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. ONEOK had a net margin of 14.05% and a return on equity of 16.84%. The firm had revenue of $7 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.18 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that ONEOK, Inc. will post 5.07 EPS for the current year.

ONEOK Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is an increase from ONEOK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.43%. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio is 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.