Intech Investment Management LLC Acquires 189,837 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 191.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 289,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 189,837 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC owned 0.06% of NiSource worth $7,997,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NI. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of NiSource by 123.6% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,593,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $148,517,000 after purchasing an additional 3,092,138 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in NiSource by 330.9% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,463,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $95,792,000 after acquiring an additional 2,659,551 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in NiSource during the fourth quarter valued at about $70,090,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in NiSource by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,955,258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,432,512,000 after acquiring an additional 1,850,842 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in NiSource by 27.3% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,525,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $226,353,000 after acquiring an additional 1,826,202 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on NI. Mizuho began coverage on NiSource in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $33.00 price target on the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on NiSource from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on NiSource from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on NiSource from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NiSource presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at NiSource

In other NiSource news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 3,742 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 19,978 shares in the company, valued at approximately $558,584.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

NiSource Trading Down 0.6 %

NI stock traded down $0.18 during trading on Friday, hitting $30.49. The company had a trading volume of 2,920,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,153,741. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $28.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $27.49. NiSource Inc. has a 12 month low of $22.86 and a 12 month high of $31.13. The stock has a market cap of $13.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.50.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.02. NiSource had a net margin of 14.23% and a return on equity of 9.56%. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.77 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that NiSource Inc. will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be given a dividend of $0.265 per share. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.48%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 31st. NiSource’s payout ratio is 69.28%.

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.