CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Cuts Stock Holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lowered its stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 12.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 455,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 64,162 shares during the quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co owned 0.10% of NiSource worth $16,749,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Barclays PLC grew its stake in NiSource by 25.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,352,182 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,852,000 after purchasing an additional 273,159 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of NiSource in the 3rd quarter worth about $348,000. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in NiSource during the third quarter valued at about $227,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in NiSource by 271.7% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 35,551 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,232,000 after buying an additional 25,987 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp bought a new stake in NiSource in the third quarter worth about $280,000. 91.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of NiSource stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total value 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group raised their target price on NiSource from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on NiSource from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.33.

NiSource Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE NI opened at $39.21 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.41. NiSource Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.46 and a twelve month high of $41.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The company has a market capitalization of $18.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.20, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.48.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) 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 period in the previous year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid 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 2.86%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.14%.

NiSource Company 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.