Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Purchases 126,813 Shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its position in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 7.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,785,160 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 126,813 shares during the quarter. ONEOK accounts for 1.4% of Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. owned 0.31% of ONEOK worth $179,230,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in OKE. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in ONEOK by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,120,264 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,040,075,000 after purchasing an additional 558,789 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in ONEOK by 5.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 934,007 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in ONEOK by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,037,890 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,405,697,000 after purchasing an additional 357,015 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in ONEOK by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,535,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $656,200,000 after purchasing an additional 864,392 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in ONEOK in the fourth quarter worth about $539,554,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on OKE. Wolfe Research upgraded ONEOK from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Citigroup decreased their target price on ONEOK from $110.00 to $102.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Barclays reduced their price objective on ONEOK from $105.00 to $101.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. US Capital Advisors upgraded ONEOK from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price objective on ONEOK from $101.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Six 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. 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 Price Performance

NYSE OKE opened at $85.74 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 1.01. ONEOK, Inc. has a 1 year low of $75.48 and a 1 year high of $118.07. The business’s fifty day moving average is $88.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.81.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.28 by ($0.24). ONEOK had a net margin of 14.05% and a return on equity of 16.84%. The firm had revenue of $6.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.23 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.09 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that ONEOK, Inc. will post 5.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 5th. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.47%.

ONEOK Company 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.