ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) Short Interest Up 48.6% in January

ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 22,900,000 shares, a growth of 48.6% from the January 15th total of 15,410,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,580,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in OKE. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 558,789 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in ONEOK by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,414,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,848,844,000 after purchasing an additional 934,007 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in ONEOK by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,037,890 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,405,697,000 after purchasing an additional 357,015 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of ONEOK by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,535,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $656,200,000 after purchasing an additional 864,392 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of ONEOK in the fourth quarter worth $539,554,000. Institutional investors own 69.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

OKE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial increased their price target on ONEOK from $99.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut ONEOK from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $107.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Mizuho upgraded shares of ONEOK to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of ONEOK in a research report on Friday, January 10th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $109.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, US Capital Advisors raised shares of ONEOK from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ONEOK has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $103.92.

ONEOK Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of OKE stock opened at $97.96 on Friday. ONEOK has a 1 year low of $69.01 and a 1 year high of $118.07. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $101.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.05. 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 market capitalization of $57.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.49, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.70.

ONEOK Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a boost from ONEOK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.21%. ONEOK’s dividend payout ratio is 86.19%.

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.