Quantinno Capital Management LP Raises Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 15.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 101,519 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,212 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP’s holdings in NiSource were worth $3,732,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 57,793,581 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,124,492,000 after buying an additional 2,459,452 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in NiSource by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 21,370,032 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $785,563,000 after acquiring an additional 1,965,334 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in NiSource by 88.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $516,373,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,608 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in NiSource by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,448,075 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $419,765,000 after purchasing an additional 700,747 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in NiSource by 185.0% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 9,244,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $339,837,000 after purchasing an additional 6,001,486 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on NI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of NiSource from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on NiSource from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Guggenheim lifted their price target on NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on NiSource from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.50.

NiSource Price Performance

NYSE:NI opened at $39.09 on Monday. NiSource Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.60 and a 52-week high of $41.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $39.07 and a 200 day moving average of $38.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.53.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.08. NiSource had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 13.94%. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.32 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.85 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.87%. NiSource’s payout ratio is presently 60.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NiSource news, Director Michael E. Jesanis sold 6,178 shares of NiSource stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.81, for a total transaction of $233,590.18. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $701,035.21. The trade was a 24.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

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.