1834 Investment Advisors Co. Sells 907 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

1834 Investment Advisors Co. reduced its stake in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 22,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 907 shares during the quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $838,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

NiSource Stock Performance

Shares of NI opened at $37.75 on Friday. NiSource Inc. has a one year low of $24.80 and a one year high of $38.83. The business has a fifty day moving average of $36.99 and a 200 day moving average of $34.56. 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 market capitalization of $17.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.54.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $986.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.73 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.97%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.24%.

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.