Hennessy Advisors Inc. Purchases 14,600 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 3.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 438,281 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,600 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of NiSource worth $12,123,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC raised its stake in NiSource by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 13,176 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $350,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its position in NiSource by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 8,930 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $237,000 after buying an additional 414 shares in the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its position in NiSource by 11.1% in the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 4,493 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,000 after buying an additional 449 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 6,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $164,000 after buying an additional 451 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NiSource by 16.7% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,228 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 463 shares in the last quarter. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on NI shares. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $31.00 target price on shares of NiSource in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of NiSource from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on NiSource from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NiSource currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 3,742 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.96, for a total transaction of $104,626.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 19,978 shares in the company, valued at $558,584.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

NiSource Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NI traded down $0.27 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $28.73. The stock had a trading volume of 1,396,426 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,309,686. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.16. NiSource Inc. has a 12 month low of $22.86 and a 12 month high of $29.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The company has a market capitalization of $12.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.51.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.07 billion. NiSource had a net margin of 14.23% and a return on equity of 9.56%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.77 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that NiSource Inc. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.265 per share. This represents a $1.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 30th. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is 69.28%.

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.