Stableford Capital II LLC Has $646,000 Stock Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Stableford Capital II LLC reduced its stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 9.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 17,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,925 shares during the quarter. Stableford Capital II LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $646,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of NiSource by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 22,691,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $786,249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,247,368 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in 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 during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in NiSource by 0.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,396,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $394,888,000 after acquiring an additional 99,882 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in NiSource by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 10,823,095 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $375,020,000 after acquiring an additional 316,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 178,365 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NiSource Price Performance

Shares of NI stock opened at $37.33 on Friday. NiSource Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.80 and a 52 week high of $38.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.42 billion, a PE ratio of 22.62, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.46. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $36.95 and its 200-day moving average is $34.78.

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

NiSource Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a boost from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is 64.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NI. Barclays boosted 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. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of NiSource in a research note on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $39.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.