Jennison Associates LLC Sells 4,231 Shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

Jennison Associates LLC decreased its holdings in shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 432,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,231 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC owned about 0.07% of ONEOK worth $30,382,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of OKE. Peoples Bank KS purchased a new stake in ONEOK during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of ONEOK by 90.7% in the fourth quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 408 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its stake in shares of ONEOK by 605.1% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 557 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 478 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. raised its stake in shares of ONEOK by 283.5% in the fourth quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 510 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares during the period. Finally, Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC raised its stake in shares of ONEOK by 1,690.9% in the third quarter. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC now owns 591 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 558 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on OKE shares. Wolfe Research raised shares of ONEOK from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of ONEOK from $73.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of ONEOK from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of ONEOK from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, US Capital Advisors downgraded shares of ONEOK from an “overweight” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $82.25.

ONEOK Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of ONEOK stock opened at $80.95 on Thursday. ONEOK, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.91 and a 1 year high of $81.12. The stock has a market cap of $47.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.59, a PEG ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $77.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $71.47.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.21 by ($0.03). ONEOK had a net margin of 15.04% and a return on equity of 22.57%. The firm had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that ONEOK, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be issued a $0.99 dividend. This represents a $3.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.35%.

ONEOK declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 17th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the utilities provider to repurchase up to 4.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Wayne Thomas Smith purchased 2,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $75.25 per share, for a total transaction of $203,175.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 2,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,175. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

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.