EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC Has $81,000 Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 343.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,705 shares during the quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $81,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NI. Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in shares of NiSource by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 9,444 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $327,000 after acquiring an additional 465 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of NiSource during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $511,000. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of NiSource by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 65,308 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,263,000 after acquiring an additional 5,103 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of NiSource by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 586,245 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,313,000 after acquiring an additional 5,757 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in NiSource by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,330,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,095,000 after purchasing an additional 5,300 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NiSource Stock Performance

NYSE:NI opened at $38.91 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $38.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.54. The company has a market cap of $18.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.02, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.26 and a fifty-two week high of $41.45.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%. NiSource’s payout ratio is 69.14%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares in the company, valued at $988,339.36. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NiSource has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.13.

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.