NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) Shares Bought by DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 175,328 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,815 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in NiSource were worth $4,591,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in NiSource by 256.7% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 7,704,805 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $211,266,000 after purchasing an additional 5,544,787 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in NiSource by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,613,623 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,673,113,000 after purchasing an additional 5,153,843 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in NiSource by 8.9% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,192,844 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $769,332,000 after purchasing an additional 1,970,696 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in NiSource by 95.9% in the 2nd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,136,737 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $85,789,000 after purchasing an additional 1,535,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in NiSource by 20.6% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,070,847 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $125,149,000 after buying an additional 865,245 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NiSource

In related news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 11,141 shares of NiSource 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 owns 23,720 shares in the company, valued at $632,375.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

NiSource Price Performance

NI stock opened at $27.26 on Friday. NiSource Inc. has a 52-week low of $22.86 and a 52-week high of $28.95. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.08. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $12.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.49.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.02). NiSource had a return on equity of 10.10% and a net margin of 12.98%. The business had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.50 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.265 per share. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. 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.