William Blair Investment Management LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

William Blair Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 530 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $485,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 110.9% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 1,195 shares in the last quarter. Thomasville National Bank boosted its position in NiSource by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 567,196 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $20,850,000 after acquiring an additional 16,364 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in NiSource by 21.7% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,712,724 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $99,720,000 after acquiring an additional 483,491 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings 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 worth $516,373,000 after acquiring an additional 6,991,608 shares during the period. Finally, Moran Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of NiSource in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,068,000. 91.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction of $219,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $988,339.36. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

NiSource Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:NI opened at $39.35 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.56. NiSource Inc. has a 12-month low of $26.26 and a 12-month high of $41.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.29, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 7.87%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. On average, 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 Tuesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.85%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.14%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $38.13.

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.