Personal CFO Solutions LLC Lowers Holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Personal CFO Solutions LLC cut its holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 27.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,911 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,256 shares during the period. Personal CFO Solutions LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $217,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in NiSource by 110.9% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV bought a new stake in NiSource in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $748,000. Thomasville National Bank increased its stake in NiSource by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 567,196 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,850,000 after acquiring an additional 16,364 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in NiSource by 21.7% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,712,724 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,720,000 after acquiring an additional 483,491 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in NiSource by 88.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $516,373,000 after acquiring an additional 6,991,608 shares during the last quarter. 91.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

NiSource Stock Performance

NYSE NI opened at $38.87 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $18.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.99, 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 quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $38.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.32. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.04 and a fifty-two week high of $41.44.

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 the consensus estimate 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 posted $0.53 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.88%. This is an increase from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. NiSource’s payout ratio is currently 69.14%.

Insider Activity

In other NiSource 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 value of $219,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $988,339.36. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.