Farther Finance Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 305.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,542 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,198 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $547,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in NiSource by 110.9% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Inc. CA acquired a new position in NiSource during the fourth quarter worth $34,612,000. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its stake in NiSource by 53.7% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 4,382 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $161,000 after purchasing an additional 1,531 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of NiSource by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,075,372 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $76,291,000 after acquiring an additional 43,608 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Global Investments acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource in the fourth quarter valued at $4,035,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Melanie B. Berman sold 6,227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total transaction of $245,468.34. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 28,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,138,528.44. This trade represents a 17.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Michael E. Jesanis sold 6,178 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 18,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $701,035.21. This represents a 24.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,405 shares of company stock worth $631,939 over the last quarter. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NiSource Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NI opened at $39.47 on Monday. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.83 and a fifty-two week high of $41.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $39.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $38.41. The company has a market capitalization of $18.58 billion, a PE ratio of 24.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.32 billion. NiSource had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 7.87%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st will be paid 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 2.84%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 60.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of NiSource from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of NiSource from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of NiSource from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $41.50.

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.