Boston Partners Lowers Stock Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Boston Partners lessened its position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 367,885 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 14,710 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners owned approximately 0.08% of NiSource worth $13,525,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NI. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of NiSource by 110.9% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195 shares during the period. Thomasville National Bank grew its holdings in NiSource by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 567,196 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $20,850,000 after purchasing an additional 16,364 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of NiSource by 21.7% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,712,724 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $99,720,000 after buying an additional 483,491 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of NiSource by 88.4% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Moran Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NiSource during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,068,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

NiSource Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NI stock opened at $39.59 on Friday. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.26 and a fifty-two week high of $41.45. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $38.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.44, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 13.94%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.83%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NiSource news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of NiSource stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction of $219,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $988,339.36. The trade was a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.