Global Assets Advisory LLC Takes $1.20 Million Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 43,501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,203,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 123.6% during the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,593,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $148,517,000 after purchasing an additional 3,092,138 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of NiSource in the 4th quarter valued at about $70,090,000. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of NiSource by 110.9% during the 4th quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC now owns 3,915,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $103,948,000 after acquiring an additional 2,058,646 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in NiSource by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,955,258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,432,512,000 after purchasing an additional 1,850,842 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in NiSource by 27.3% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,525,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $226,353,000 after purchasing an additional 1,826,202 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NiSource

In other news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 3,742 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.96, for a total transaction of $104,626.32. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,978 shares in the company, valued at $558,584.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on NI shares. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of NiSource from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 9th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $31.00 price target on shares of NiSource in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on NiSource from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $29.20.

NiSource Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:NI opened at $29.01 on Thursday. NiSource Inc. has a 1-year low of $22.86 and a 1-year high of $29.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The stock has a market cap of $13.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $28.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.15.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.07 billion. NiSource had a return on equity of 9.56% and a net margin of 14.23%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.77 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that NiSource Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.265 per share. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 30th. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.28%.

About NiSource

NiSource Inc, an energy holding company, operates as a regulated natural gas and electric utility company in the United States. It operates in two segments, Gas Distribution Operations and Electric Operations. The company distributes natural gas to approximately 3.3 million customers through approximately 55,000 miles of distribution main pipeline and the associated individual customer service lines; and 1,000 miles of transmission main pipeline in northern Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland.