Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,253 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 221 shares during the period. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in ONEOK were worth $439,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Regal Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of ONEOK by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,631 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $294,000 after buying an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC boosted its position in ONEOK by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC now owns 3,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $228,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its position in ONEOK by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 21,637 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,335,000 after buying an additional 177 shares during the period. Monarch Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in ONEOK by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Monarch Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,573 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,094,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 70,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,477,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. 69.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on OKE shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of ONEOK from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $80.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Bank of America raised shares of ONEOK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, December 4th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of ONEOK from $71.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $81.73.

ONEOK Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of OKE traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $79.88. The stock had a trading volume of 503,125 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,059,751. 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 has a market cap of $46.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.65. The business’s fifty day moving average is $73.14 and its 200 day moving average is $69.42. ONEOK, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.91 and a 52-week high of $80.22.

ONEOK (NYSE:OKE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.21 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. ONEOK had a return on equity of 22.57% and a net margin of 15.04%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that ONEOK, Inc. will post 4.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ONEOK Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 30th were issued a $0.99 dividend. This is a boost from ONEOK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.96. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, January 29th. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.96%. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.35%.

ONEOK announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 17th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the utilities provider to repurchase up to 4.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at ONEOK

In related news, Director Wayne Thomas Smith acquired 2,700 shares of ONEOK stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $75.25 per share, for a total transaction of $203,175.00. Following the transaction, 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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.