National Pension Service Acquires Shares of 670,341 NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

National Pension Service acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 670,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $24,642,000. National Pension Service owned 0.14% of NiSource at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NI. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its position in shares of NiSource by 41.7% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 45,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,678,000 after purchasing an additional 13,438 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank raised its position in shares of NiSource by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 90,505 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,327,000 after purchasing an additional 2,378 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL raised its position in shares of NiSource by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL now owns 1,331,216 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $48,936,000 after purchasing an additional 11,270 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of NiSource by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,261,578 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $156,656,000 after purchasing an additional 155,808 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. raised its position in shares of NiSource by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 1,704,055 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $62,641,000 after purchasing an additional 183,701 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Buying and Selling at NiSource

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

NiSource Price Performance

NYSE NI opened at $40.79 on Friday. NiSource Inc. has a one year low of $25.71 and a one year high of $40.88. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $37.84 and a 200 day moving average of $35.94. The company has a market capitalization of $19.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.18, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 13.94%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. NiSource’s payout ratio is currently 69.14%.

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.