SVB Wealth LLC Acquires New Holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

SVB Wealth LLC bought a new position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 17,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $640,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 19.1% during the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,262 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $671,000 after buying an additional 2,928 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource in the 4th quarter worth $6,316,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of NiSource by 62.5% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 15,841 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $582,000 after purchasing an additional 6,094 shares in the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of NiSource by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 40,041 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,472,000 after purchasing an additional 1,550 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource in the 4th quarter worth $24,642,000. 91.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NiSource news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total value of $219,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $988,339.36. The trade was a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, NiSource has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $38.13.

NiSource Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NI stock opened at $41.24 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.38 billion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.54. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.98 and a fifty-two week high of $41.30.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 7.87%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.53 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.14%.

NiSource Profile

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.