Short sellers have trimmed positions ahead of ONEOK's April 28 report. Analyst upgrades accelerated through April while options sentiment turned mildly defensive.
Short interest stands at 27.0 million shares as of April 23, representing 4.30% of the free float. That's down 6.2% over the past month, with bearish bets retreating from late-March highs. Days to cover sits at 5.74. Cost to borrow ticked up to 0.48%, a modest 5% rise over the week. Utilisation climbed to 17.84%, still well below the 52-week peak of 24.47% set in late March.
The put/call ratio closed at 0.38 on April 24, above the 20-day mean of 0.33 and 1.67 standard deviations higher. That's elevated within the 52-week range of 0.23 to 0.85, signalling a tilt toward protective positioning as the earnings date nears.
Wall Street activity tilted bullish in recent weeks. Morgan Stanley raised its target to $113 on April 7, the highest among recent moves. Jefferies upgraded OKE to Buy on March 20 and lifted its price target to $100. Wells Fargo followed on March 25, upgrading to Overweight with a $100 target. The average price target of $93.57 implies 6.9% upside from the current $87.50 close. Truist initiated coverage at Hold with a $91 target on March 24. Benzinga's bull case notes system volumes are growing faster than expected, driving higher cash flows. The bear case warns of prolonged declines in U.S. natural gas volumes and weaker ethane recoveries pressuring output.
The P/E multiple sits at 14.93, down 1.26 points over 30 days as the stock retreated 3.8% in the past month. The EV/EBITDA ratio of 10.48 edged lower by 0.03 over the same period. Price-to-book stands at 2.34. ONEOK ranks in the 63rd percentile for earnings surprise and the 99th percentile for analyst recommendation differential, indicating strong consensus optimism.
Insiders sold $1.96 million net over the past 90 days, primarily via tax-related stock sales tied to equity awards. Vanguard increased its stake by 381,000 shares to 77.6 million (12.3% of shares) as of March 31. BlackRock added 1.4 million shares to hold 57.1 million (9.1%). Capital Research initiated a new 8.0 million share position in January.
OKE last reported on February 23 and has printed earnings multiple times in late February over recent cycles. The stock rose 4.8% over the past week despite the one-month pullback.
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