Corient Private Wealth LLC Trims Stake in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Corient Private Wealth LLC decreased its position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 28.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 79,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 31,998 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $2,936,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 22,691,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $786,249,000 after buying an additional 1,247,368 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake 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 buying an additional 6,991,608 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,396,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $394,888,000 after buying an additional 99,882 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,747,328 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $371,139,000 after buying an additional 178,365 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 53.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,124,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $176,194,000 after buying an additional 1,782,078 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NI has been the topic of several recent research reports. 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. UBS Group increased their target price on NiSource from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, NiSource presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.89.

NiSource Stock Performance

NI stock opened at $39.18 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $18.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50. NiSource Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.26 and a 1 year high of $41.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $38.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.65.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 13.94%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 69.14%.

Insider Activity at NiSource

In related news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of NiSource stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction of $219,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares in the company, valued at approximately $988,339.36. The trade was a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.