Park National Corp OH Acquires Shares of 5,495 NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Park National Corp OH bought a new position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 5,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in NiSource during the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of NiSource during the third quarter valued at $33,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new stake in shares of NiSource in the second quarter valued at about $47,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in NiSource in the third quarter worth about $47,000. Finally, Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in NiSource during the 3rd quarter worth about $50,000. 91.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of NiSource in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Mizuho upped their target price on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.50.

NiSource Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NI opened at $36.42 on Friday. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $24.80 and a fifty-two week high of $38.56. The company has a market cap of $17.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.46. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.85.

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

NiSource 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.