Rothschild Investment LLC Makes New $1.29 Million Investment in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 44,653 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,286,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 14.6% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 13,037 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 1,660 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 13.9% in the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 438,533 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,643,000 after buying an additional 53,448 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 36.9% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 210,410 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,586,000 after buying an additional 56,667 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 11,003 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 803 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 40.7% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,281,490 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,024,000 after buying an additional 370,805 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NI. Mizuho began coverage on shares of NiSource in a report on Thursday, July 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $33.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of NiSource from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of NiSource from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.00.

NiSource Price Performance

NI traded up $0.24 on Friday, reaching $33.06. The company had a trading volume of 9,601,737 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,267,960. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.67. The company has a market cap of $14.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.66. NiSource Inc. has a 52-week low of $22.86 and a 52-week high of $33.13.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.16 billion. NiSource had a net margin of 14.23% and a return on equity of 9.56%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.265 per share. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 69.28%.

NiSource Company 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.