Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Acquires 14,699 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 997,349 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,699 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $26,480,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of NI. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in NiSource by 256.7% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 7,704,805 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $211,266,000 after buying an additional 5,544,787 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in NiSource by 10.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,613,623 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,673,113,000 after purchasing an additional 5,153,843 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in NiSource by 8.9% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,192,844 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $769,332,000 after purchasing an additional 1,970,696 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in NiSource by 95.9% in the second quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,136,737 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $85,789,000 after purchasing an additional 1,535,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in 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 worth $125,149,000 after purchasing an additional 865,245 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insider Activity at NiSource

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

NiSource Price Performance

Shares of NI opened at $27.58 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.36 billion, a PE ratio of 18.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.76. NiSource Inc. has a 1-year low of $22.86 and a 1-year high of $28.95. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $26.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.20.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. NiSource had a net margin of 12.98% and a return on equity of 10.10%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that NiSource Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

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 is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $1.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.84%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.