Blair William & Co. IL Has $940,000 Stock Position in NiSource, Inc $NI

Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in shares of NiSource, Inc (NYSE:NI) by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 23,302 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,657 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in NiSource were worth $940,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 447,059 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,034,000 after buying an additional 26,685 shares during the last quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 114.2% during the 2nd quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 60,420 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after buying an additional 32,207 shares during the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,487 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $746,000 after buying an additional 402 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 417,281 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,833,000 after buying an additional 11,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ascent Group LLC lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 59,560 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,403,000 after buying an additional 1,173 shares during the last quarter. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded NiSource from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on NiSource in a research report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $45.00 price objective for the company. Zacks Research upgraded NiSource to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Wall Street Zen downgraded NiSource from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on NiSource from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.44.

NiSource Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NI stock opened at $43.24 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $20.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.00, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.60. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $42.07 and a 200-day moving average of $40.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. NiSource, Inc has a 1-year low of $34.23 and a 1-year high of $44.51.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.16 billion. NiSource had a return on equity of 8.25% and a net margin of 14.46%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NiSource, Inc will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 31st. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is presently 59.57%.

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.