Savant Capital LLC Grows Stock Holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Savant Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 315.6% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 52,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 40,074 shares during the quarter. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $1,520,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Zimmer Partners LP boosted its position in shares of NiSource by 146.2% in the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 8,907,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $246,388,000 after acquiring an additional 5,290,322 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 123.6% in the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,593,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $148,517,000 after purchasing an additional 3,092,138 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of NiSource during the 4th quarter valued at $70,090,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NiSource by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,955,258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,432,512,000 after buying an additional 1,850,842 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NiSource by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,525,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $226,353,000 after buying an additional 1,826,202 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NI. Barclays lifted their target price on NiSource from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Mizuho initiated coverage on NiSource in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $33.00 price objective on the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of NiSource from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.00.

NiSource Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NI opened at $33.51 on Wednesday. NiSource Inc. has a 12 month low of $22.86 and a 12 month high of $33.84. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $31.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market cap of $15.03 billion, a PE ratio of 21.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.51.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.16 billion. NiSource had a return on equity of 9.15% and a net margin of 14.76%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.11 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be given a dividend of $0.265 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.16%. NiSource’s payout ratio is currently 69.28%.

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.