Hennessy Advisors Inc. Buys 33,509 Shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) by 11.6% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 321,754 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 33,509 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in ONEOK were worth $31,924,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

ONEOK Stock Up 1.3%

OKE stock opened at $83.74 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $83.07 and a 200 day moving average of $94.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.72 billion, a PE ratio of 17.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. ONEOK, Inc. has a 52 week low of $75.48 and a 52 week high of $118.07.

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

ONEOK Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.92%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 5th. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

OKE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of ONEOK from $96.00 to $93.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of ONEOK from $111.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of ONEOK from $110.00 to $107.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of ONEOK from $101.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, 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 report on Thursday, May 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $103.69.

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.