ONEOK (OKE) Q4 Earnings: What's In The Cards For The Stock?

ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) is scheduled to release fourth-quarter 2017 results on Feb 26, after the closing bell. Last quarter, the company delivered a negative earnings surprise of 4.44%.

Let’s see, how things are shaping up prior to this announcement.

Factors to Consider

ONEOK is expected to benefit from its fee-based earnings and well-positioned assets in the resource rich regions. Growth projects worth $9 billion, completed by the company during 2006-2016 time period, are likely to provide strong returns.

Increase in natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) volume in the STACK and SCOOP areas and Williston and Permian basins might allow ONEOK to gain from its solid asset base in these regions.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter revenues and earnings per share are pegged at $3,863 million and 51 cents, respectively. The projected top- and bottom-line figures reflect a respective increase of 38.7% and 18.6% year over year.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not show that ONEOK is likely to beat on earnings this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a favorable Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. But this is not the case here as you will see below. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks ESP: ONEOK has an Earnings ESP of -3.16%, representing the percentage difference between the Most Accurate estimate of 50 cents and the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 51 cents.

Zacks Rank: ONEOK’s Zacks Rank #3 increases the predictive power of ESP. However, a stock needs a positive ESP to be confident about an earnings surprise. Therefore, this combination leaves surprise prediction inconclusive.

We caution against Sell-rated stocks (#4 or 5) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

Here are a few players worth considering from the Zacks Oil & Energy sector with the right combination of elements to beat estimates this time around:

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE:EOG) has an Earnings ESP of +1.92% and a Zacks Rank of 1. The company is expected to report fourth-quarter 2017 results on Feb 27. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS) has an Earnings ESP of +14.28% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is anticipated to release fourth-quarter 2017 earnings on Feb 27.

Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ:RUN) has an Earnings ESP of +45.00% and a Zacks Rank of 2. The company is likely to announce fourth-quarter 2017 earnings on Mar 6.

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