HB Wealth Management LLC Has $329,000 Holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

HB Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 26.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,885 shares during the quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $329,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in NiSource by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 22,691,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $786,249,000 after acquiring an additional 1,247,368 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of NiSource by 88.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $516,373,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,608 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 0.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,396,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $394,888,000 after purchasing an additional 99,882 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in NiSource by 3.0% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 10,823,095 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $375,020,000 after purchasing an additional 316,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in NiSource by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,747,328 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $371,139,000 after buying an additional 178,365 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho upped their price target on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of NiSource in a research note on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $39.00 target price for the company. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NiSource currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.50.

NiSource Trading Down 0.4 %

NiSource stock opened at $37.64 on Friday. NiSource Inc. has a one year low of $24.80 and a one year high of $38.83. The company has a market cap of $17.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.54. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $36.97 and a 200-day moving average of $34.46.

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

NiSource Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.98%. NiSource’s payout ratio is currently 64.24%.

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.