Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 128,652 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Prudential Financial Inc. cut its stake in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 21.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 468,520 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 128,652 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. owned about 0.10% of NiSource worth $17,150,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 57,793,581 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,124,492,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,452 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of NiSource by 5.8% during the third 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 last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in NiSource by 88.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $516,373,000 after buying an additional 6,991,608 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in NiSource by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,396,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $394,888,000 after acquiring an additional 99,882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in NiSource by 1.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 178,365 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

NiSource Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NI opened at $39.76 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.80. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.26 and a fifty-two week high of $41.45. The company has a market capitalization of $18.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.41.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 13.94%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast 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. 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 2.82%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 30th. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is currently 69.14%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $988,339.36. This trade represents a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.