CHICAGO TRUST Co NA Buys 763 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

CHICAGO TRUST Co NA raised its stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,409 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 763 shares during the period. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA’s holdings in NiSource were worth $329,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Zimmer Partners LP raised its stake in shares of NiSource by 146.2% during the 1st 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. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of NiSource by 123.6% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,593,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $148,517,000 after purchasing an additional 3,092,138 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of NiSource by 330.9% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,463,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $95,792,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,551 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NiSource during the 4th quarter worth $70,090,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of NiSource by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,955,258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,432,512,000 after purchasing an additional 1,850,842 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NiSource news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 3,742 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.96, for a total transaction of $104,626.32. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,978 shares in the company, valued at $558,584.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NiSource Price Performance

Shares of NI traded up $0.30 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $31.35. 4,434,601 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,260,353. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $29.57 and a 200-day moving average of $27.97. NiSource Inc. has a one year low of $22.86 and a one year high of $32.38. The firm has a market cap of $14.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.49, a PEG ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.56.

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

NiSource Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be given a $0.265 dividend. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 31st. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.28%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays boosted their price objective on NiSource from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Mizuho initiated coverage on NiSource in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $33.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on NiSource from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NiSource presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.83.

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.