Birch Capital Management LLC Sells 161 Shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

Birch Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 1.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 161 shares during the period. Birch Capital Management LLC’s holdings in ONEOK were worth $1,448,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of OKE. Norges Bank purchased a new position in ONEOK in the fourth quarter worth about $539,554,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in ONEOK by 433.4% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,206,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $422,373,000 after purchasing an additional 3,418,207 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in ONEOK by 240.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,790,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $280,194,000 after purchasing an additional 1,971,147 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of ONEOK during the 4th quarter valued at about $182,694,000. Finally, ClearBridge Investments Ltd purchased a new position in shares of ONEOK during the 4th quarter valued at about $177,045,000. 69.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup lowered their price objective on ONEOK from $110.00 to $102.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on ONEOK from $102.00 to $93.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank lowered their price target on ONEOK from $96.00 to $93.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on ONEOK from $110.00 to $107.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on ONEOK from $101.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $103.69.

ONEOK Stock Performance

NYSE OKE opened at $82.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $52.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.81. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $82.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $94.48. ONEOK, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $75.48 and a fifty-two week high of $118.07.

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

ONEOK Announces Dividend

The business 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 4.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 5th. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 80.47%.

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.