Crewe Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 1,122 NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 1,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $31,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Financial Corp IN acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource in the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource in the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource in the 1st quarter worth approximately $43,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 46.2% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 491 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource in the 4th quarter worth approximately $50,000. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of NiSource in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $33.00 target price for the company. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of NiSource from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of NiSource from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of NiSource from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.50.

NiSource Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NI traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $31.09. 5,480,849 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,262,250. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The company’s 50 day moving average is $28.96 and its 200 day moving average is $27.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.50. NiSource Inc. has a one year low of $22.86 and a one year high of $31.55.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $2.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be paid a $0.265 dividend. This represents a $1.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 31st. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is 69.28%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 3,742 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.96, for a total value of $104,626.32. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.