Legal & General Group Plc Decreases Stake in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its stake in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 21.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,618,984 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,276,547 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.79% of ONEOK worth $463,746,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in OKE. FNY Investment Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of ONEOK by 14,279.1% during the 4th quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 22,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,208,000 after acquiring an additional 21,847 shares in the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in ONEOK by 57.9% during the fourth quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 14,506 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,456,000 after purchasing an additional 5,321 shares in the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in ONEOK in the fourth quarter valued at $251,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of ONEOK by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,544,208 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $155,038,000 after buying an additional 136,071 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Contravisory Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of ONEOK in the 4th quarter worth about $9,483,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

ONEOK Stock Performance

NYSE:OKE opened at $80.72 on Tuesday. ONEOK, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $75.48 and a fifty-two week high of $118.07. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $96.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $100.21. The company has a market cap of $50.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last announced its quarterly 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 analysts’ expectations of $6.18 billion. Analysts expect that ONEOK, Inc. will post 5.07 EPS for the current year.

ONEOK Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from ONEOK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.10%. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 79.69%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. US Capital Advisors upgraded shares of ONEOK from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on ONEOK from $107.00 to $102.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on ONEOK from $109.00 to $102.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Barclays reduced their price objective on ONEOK from $105.00 to $101.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised ONEOK from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Seven equities research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $105.00.

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.