Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Has $672,000 Stock Holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lessened its stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 43.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,272 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 13,814 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in NiSource were worth $672,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in NiSource by 110.9% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 1,195 shares during the last quarter. Thomasville National Bank boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 16,364 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 483,491 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of NiSource by 88.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $516,373,000 after acquiring an additional 6,991,608 shares during the period. Finally, Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NiSource in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $566,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NI shares. Guggenheim increased their price objective on NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on NiSource from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on NiSource from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $41.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at NiSource

In other NiSource news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of NiSource stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 18.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

NiSource Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NI stock opened at $39.51 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $18.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.53. NiSource Inc. has a one year low of $27.60 and a one year high of $41.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $39.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.41.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.32 billion. NiSource had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 13.94%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. Analysts predict that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued 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 2.83%. NiSource’s payout ratio is presently 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.