NiSource Inc. (NI) To Go Ex-Dividend on April 30th

NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 18th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of 0.28 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, May 20th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th.

NiSource has increased its dividend by an average of 6.4% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. NiSource has a dividend payout ratio of 55.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect NiSource to earn $2.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.2%.

NiSource Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NI opened at $39.35 on Thursday. NiSource has a 52 week low of $26.26 and a 52 week high of $41.45. The firm has a market cap of $18.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.56. 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 (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS 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 quarter last year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that NiSource will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $988,339.36. The trade was a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

About NiSource

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.