Amica Mutual Insurance Co. Makes New $605,000 Investment in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Amica Mutual Insurance Co. bought a new stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 22,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $605,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in NiSource in the fourth quarter worth $1,049,000. HF Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NiSource in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,559,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in NiSource by 19.0% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 803,652 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $21,337,000 after acquiring an additional 128,497 shares in the last quarter. Bfsg LLC purchased a new position in shares of NiSource in the 4th quarter worth about $5,696,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in NiSource by 54.0% in the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 201,128 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,964,000 after buying an additional 70,487 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on NI shares. Barclays upped their price objective on NiSource from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com raised NiSource from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th.

Insider Buying and Selling at NiSource

In related news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 11,141 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.66, for a total value of $297,019.06. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $632,375.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NiSource Stock Performance

NI traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $27.90. 2,797,475 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,234,289. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.49. NiSource Inc. has a 52-week low of $22.86 and a 52-week high of $28.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $27.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.32.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NiSource had a net margin of 12.98% and a return on equity of 10.10%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.50 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of $0.265 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.80%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.11%.

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.