Allstate Corp Purchases New Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 14,075 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $517,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 110.9% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195 shares in the last quarter. Thomasville National Bank lifted its holdings in NiSource by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 567,196 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,850,000 after purchasing an additional 16,364 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in NiSource by 21.7% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,712,724 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,720,000 after purchasing an additional 483,491 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in NiSource by 88.4% during the third 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 period. Finally, Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in NiSource during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $566,000. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NiSource Stock Performance

NYSE:NI opened at $40.40 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $39.00 and its 200-day moving average is $36.99. NiSource Inc. has a 52-week low of $26.26 and a 52-week high of $41.45. The company has a market cap of $18.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.94, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS 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 last year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is currently 69.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of NiSource from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of NiSource from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at NiSource

In other NiSource news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of NiSource stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, 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 can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.