8,916 Shares in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) Purchased by Old North State Wealth Management LLC

Old North State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 8,916 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $309,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NiSource by 1.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,946,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,519,823,000 after buying an additional 991,336 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of NiSource by 146.2% during the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 8,907,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $246,388,000 after buying an additional 5,290,322 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of NiSource by 0.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 6,374,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $183,636,000 after buying an additional 44,598 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in shares of NiSource by 1.4% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,908,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $141,415,000 after buying an additional 67,697 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can boosted its holdings in NiSource by 68.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,342,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $96,407,000 after purchasing an additional 1,353,977 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

NiSource Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NI opened at $34.49 on Monday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.63. NiSource Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.58 and a 12 month high of $35.48.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.05. NiSource had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 14.63%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $986.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st will be given a dividend of $0.265 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.07%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Bank of America initiated coverage on NiSource in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NiSource presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.50.

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.