NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) Shares Purchased by Arizona State Retirement System

Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 130,270 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,831 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in NiSource were worth $4,789,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NI. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 12.0% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $119,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 269.7% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 132,702 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,598,000 after purchasing an additional 96,809 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 2.1% during the third quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,334 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $531,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 16.1% during the third quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 33,251 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,152,000 after purchasing an additional 4,613 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 12.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,243,984 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $77,751,000 after purchasing an additional 255,348 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

NiSource Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NI opened at $38.44 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $18.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.21. NiSource Inc. has a twelve month low of $26.04 and a twelve month high of $41.44.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its 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 return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 13.94%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.53 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.91%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NiSource

In other NiSource news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total value 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 trade represents a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.