ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) was in 16 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. OKE has experienced a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with OKE positions at the end of the previous quarter.
In the financial world, there are dozens of methods shareholders can use to monitor the equity markets. Two of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can outclass the market by a superb amount (see just how much).
Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of incentives for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if shareholders understand where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action encompassing ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE).
How have hedgies been trading ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.
Of the funds we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the biggest position in ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE), worth close to $56.1 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors, with a $18.8 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers with similar optimism include David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Because ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) has experienced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there exists a select few fund managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely at the end of the first quarter. At the top of the heap, Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners dropped the largest investment of all the hedgies we track, worth an estimated $2 million in stock.. Steven Cohen’s fund, SAC Capital Advisors, also said goodbye to its stock, about $1 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
What do corporate executives and insiders think about ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE)?
Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time frame, ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE). These stocks are Integrys Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:TEG), Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE), AGL Resources Inc. (NYSE:GAS), Western Gas Equity Partners LP (NYSE:WGP), and EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT). This group of stocks belong to the gas utilities industry and their market caps are similar to OKE’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Integrys Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:TEG) | 8 | 0 | 10 |
| Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) | 15 | 0 | 8 |
| AGL Resources Inc. (NYSE:GAS) | 12 | 0 | 4 |
| Western Gas Equity Partners LP (NYSE:WGP) | 2 | 9 | 0 |
| EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) | 35 | 3 | 3 |
With the returns shown by the aforementioned tactics, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) applies perfectly to this mantra.
