DRW Securities LLC Takes $8.17 Million Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

DRW Securities LLC bought a new stake in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 235,714 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,167,000. DRW Securities LLC owned 0.05% of NiSource as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NI. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in NiSource by 3.0% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 10,823,095 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $375,020,000 after purchasing an additional 316,225 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP lifted its position in NiSource by 146.2% during the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 8,907,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $246,388,000 after purchasing an additional 5,290,322 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in NiSource by 0.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 6,374,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $183,636,000 after purchasing an additional 44,598 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in NiSource by 1.4% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,908,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $141,415,000 after purchasing an additional 67,697 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in NiSource by 0.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,914,196 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $135,627,000 after purchasing an additional 19,008 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of NiSource from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of NiSource in a report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $39.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NiSource currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.50.

NiSource Stock Performance

NYSE:NI opened at $37.71 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.60 billion, a PE ratio of 22.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.46. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $24.80 and a fifty-two week high of $38.07.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $986.00 million. NiSource had a net margin of 14.63% and a return on equity of 8.27%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current year.

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.