Valeo Financial Advisors LLC Purchases 5,686 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 67.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,686 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $375,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NI. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 256.7% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 7,704,805 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $211,266,000 after buying an additional 5,544,787 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 10.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,613,623 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,673,113,000 after buying an additional 5,153,843 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 8.9% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,192,844 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $769,332,000 after buying an additional 1,970,696 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 95.9% in the second quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,136,737 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $85,789,000 after buying an additional 1,535,138 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 20.6% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,070,847 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $125,149,000 after buying an additional 865,245 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insider Transactions at NiSource

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

NiSource Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NI stock opened at $27.07 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $26.53 and a 200-day moving average of $26.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. NiSource Inc. has a 12-month low of $22.86 and a 12-month high of $28.95. The firm has a market cap of $12.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.41, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.49.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.50 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.265 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.92%. NiSource’s payout ratio is currently 72.11%.

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.