Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Reduces Stock Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 38.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 21,655 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 13,300 shares during the quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $750,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Zimmer Partners LP boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 5,290,322 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of NiSource by 68.1% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,342,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $96,407,000 after acquiring an additional 1,353,977 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL acquired a new position in shares of NiSource during the first quarter valued at approximately $34,419,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 valued at $1,519,823,000 after acquiring an additional 991,336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NiSource by 118.4% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,616,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,449,000 after acquiring an additional 876,033 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Mizuho increased their price target on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on NiSource in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $39.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NiSource has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.50.

NiSource Stock Up 1.5 %

NiSource stock opened at $36.57 on Friday. NiSource Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.80 and a 1-year high of $36.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market cap of $17.07 billion, a PE ratio of 22.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $34.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.59.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.05. NiSource had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 14.63%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $986.00 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.19 earnings per share. NiSource’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.