Empirical Finance LLC Purchases 428 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Empirical Finance LLC increased its position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,926 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $483,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its position in NiSource by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,334 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $531,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in NiSource by 12.0% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares during the period. Thomasville National Bank raised its position in NiSource by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 53,719 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,548,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares during the last quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel lifted its holdings in NiSource by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 62,589 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,803,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. Finally, Atria Investments Inc grew its position in shares of NiSource by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 9,444 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $327,000 after buying an additional 465 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

NiSource Stock Up 1.5 %

NI stock opened at $36.57 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.64. The company has a market cap of $17.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.46. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $24.80 and a fifty-two week high of $36.74.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on NI shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on NiSource from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of NiSource in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $39.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.50.

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.