Quantinno Capital Management LP Purchases 13,212 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 15.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 101,519 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,212 shares during the quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP’s holdings in NiSource were worth $3,732,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC boosted its position in NiSource by 25.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,352,182 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,852,000 after acquiring an additional 273,159 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position 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 valued at $516,373,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,608 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of NiSource by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 32,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,187,000 after purchasing an additional 464 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its stake in NiSource by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 208,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,678,000 after purchasing an additional 3,306 shares during the period. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in NiSource in the fourth quarter worth approximately $230,000. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NiSource Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NI opened at $39.09 on Monday. 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.03. The stock has a market cap of $18.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.13, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.53. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.60 and a fifty-two week high of $41.45.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.08. NiSource had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 13.94%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.87%. NiSource’s payout ratio is 60.54%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Michael E. Jesanis sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.22, for a total value of $152,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,719 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $944,760.18. This represents a 13.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on NiSource from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of NiSource from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on NiSource from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, NiSource currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $41.50.

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.