First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Has $1.27 Million Stake in NiSource, Inc $NI

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lowered its stake in NiSource, Inc (NYSE:NI) by 91.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 29,227 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 315,030 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $1,266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in NI. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of NiSource by 55,625.2% in the 2nd quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 16,866,898 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $680,411,000 after acquiring an additional 16,836,630 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in NiSource during the second quarter valued at approximately $296,543,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its position in shares of NiSource by 52.0% in the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 4,434,245 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $178,877,000 after purchasing an additional 1,516,296 shares during the period. Merewether Investment Management LP raised its position in shares of NiSource by 55.2% in the second quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP now owns 3,006,194 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $121,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069,363 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 4.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,726,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $997,447,000 after buying an additional 965,718 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

NiSource Price Performance

NYSE:NI opened at $43.94 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.52. The company has a 50-day moving average of $42.38 and a 200-day moving average of $42.29. NiSource, Inc has a 52 week low of $35.64 and a 52 week high of $44.88. The company has a market capitalization of $20.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.25, a PEG ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.65.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $983.25 million. NiSource had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 14.15%.During the same period last year, the company earned $0.20 EPS. NiSource has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.020-2.07 EPS and its FY 2025 guidance at 1.870-1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that NiSource, Inc will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. This is a positive change from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. NiSource’s payout ratio is presently 59.26%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NiSource news, EVP Kimberly S. Cuccia sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total value of $345,040.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 41,247 shares in the company, valued at $1,778,983.11. This represents a 16.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on NI shares. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of NiSource from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on NiSource from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded NiSource from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised NiSource from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $46.00 to $50.00 in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on NiSource from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.89.

About NiSource

NiSource, Inc (NYSE: NI) is a publicly traded energy holding company headquartered in Merrillville, Indiana, that primarily owns and operates regulated local gas and electric utilities in the United States. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company delivers natural gas and electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers and provides the associated distribution and transmission services that keep local energy systems functioning.

The company’s core activities include natural gas distribution, electric transmission and distribution, system operations, maintenance and emergency response.