Voloridge Investment Management LLC Cuts Holdings in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

Voloridge Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE - Free Report) by 43.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 194,264 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 148,345 shares during the period. Voloridge Investment Management LLC's holdings in ONEOK were worth $19,504,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in ONEOK by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,120,264 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $7,040,075,000 after buying an additional 558,789 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $1,848,844,000 after buying an additional 934,007 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of ONEOK by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,037,890 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,405,697,000 after acquiring an additional 357,015 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of ONEOK by 15.2% during 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 during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of ONEOK during the fourth quarter worth $539,554,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on OKE. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of ONEOK from $110.00 to $107.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of ONEOK from $100.00 to $96.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. US Capital Advisors upgraded shares of ONEOK from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of ONEOK from $102.00 to $93.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ONEOK has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $104.69.

ONEOK Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:OKE traded down $0.60 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $81.14. 1,022,110 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,272,960. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $86.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $96.85. The company has a market cap of $50.68 billion, a PE ratio of 16.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 1.01. ONEOK, Inc. has a 12 month low of $75.48 and a 12 month high of $118.07.

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

ONEOK Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 5th. ONEOK's payout ratio is presently 80.47%.

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.