Short Interest in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) Increases By 23.5%

ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) saw a large growth in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,930,000 shares, a growth of 23.5% from the October 31st total of 11,280,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,990,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.7 days.

Insider Transactions at ONEOK

In other news, Director Pattye L. Moore sold 3,379 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.01, for a total transaction of $310,901.79. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ONEOK

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of ONEOK by 3.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,480,774 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,593,023,000 after acquiring an additional 661,854 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of ONEOK by 1.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,680,875 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,242,449,000 after acquiring an additional 138,430 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. raised its position in shares of ONEOK by 3.5% during the second quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 6,795,313 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $554,158,000 after acquiring an additional 232,043 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of ONEOK by 0.3% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,751,172 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $341,844,000 after acquiring an additional 11,189 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of ONEOK by 4.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,340,155 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $272,377,000 after acquiring an additional 132,326 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on OKE shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on ONEOK from $112.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. US Capital Advisors raised ONEOK from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays raised their price objective on ONEOK from $94.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on ONEOK from $83.00 to $99.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised ONEOK from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $103.00 to $111.00 in a report on Monday, September 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, ONEOK has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.38.

ONEOK Price Performance

Shares of ONEOK stock traded down $2.90 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $110.70. 1,252,257 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,805,201. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market cap of $64.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.77, a PEG ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.66. ONEOK has a 52 week low of $65.49 and a 52 week high of $118.07. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $100.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $90.13.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.05). ONEOK had a net margin of 14.05% and a return on equity of 16.84%. The business had revenue of $5.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.81 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.99 EPS. Research analysts forecast that ONEOK will post 5.08 earnings per share for the current year.

ONEOK Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st were given a $0.99 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.58%. ONEOK’s payout ratio is 82.85%.

About ONEOK

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.