Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Buys 31,752 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 3.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 884,787 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 31,752 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS owned 0.19% of NiSource worth $32,525,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in NiSource by 88.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $516,373,000 after buying an additional 6,991,608 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in NiSource by 53.3% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,124,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $176,194,000 after purchasing an additional 1,782,078 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in NiSource by 5.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 22,691,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $786,249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,247,368 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. purchased a new position in NiSource in the third quarter worth $32,162,000. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its position in NiSource by 793.3% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 883,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,609,000 after purchasing an additional 784,495 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company boosted 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, NiSource has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.13.

NiSource Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE NI opened at $39.35 on Thursday. NiSource Inc. has a one year low of $26.26 and a one year high of $41.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $38.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.49 billion, a PE ratio of 24.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.14%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction of $219,560.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $988,339.36. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.