Kimelman & Baird LLC Sells 3,000 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Kimelman & Baird LLC decreased its holdings in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 17.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,000 shares during the quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $513,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NI. Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in NiSource by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 9,444 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $327,000 after buying an additional 465 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in NiSource during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $511,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in NiSource by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,000,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,653,000 after buying an additional 3,186 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its stake in NiSource by 231.0% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 46,702 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,618,000 after buying an additional 32,594 shares during the period. Finally, ING Groep NV acquired a new position in NiSource during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $748,000. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NiSource

In other news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total value of $219,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $988,339.36. This trade represents a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NiSource Stock Performance

Shares of NiSource stock opened at $39.48 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $18.56 billion, a PE ratio of 24.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $38.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.45. NiSource Inc. has a 52 week low of $26.25 and a 52 week high of $41.44.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 7.87%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.53 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. This is a positive change from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is 69.14%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, NiSource has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $38.13.

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.