Mackenzie Financial Corp Has $10.68 Million Stake in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Mackenzie Financial Corp cut its stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 20.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 370,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 93,544 shares during the quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp’s holdings in NiSource were worth $10,681,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Zimmer Partners LP lifted its stake 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 period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake 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. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of NiSource by 3.6% during the fourth 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 period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in NiSource by 3,195.5% during the fourth quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,811,447 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $48,094,000 after buying an additional 1,756,480 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in NiSource by 68.1% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,342,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $96,407,000 after buying an additional 1,353,977 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NI. Bank of America assumed coverage on NiSource in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Mizuho assumed coverage on NiSource in a report on Thursday, July 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $33.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on NiSource from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of NiSource from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NiSource presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.43.

NiSource Stock Performance

NYSE NI opened at $34.65 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.82. NiSource Inc. has a 12-month low of $22.86 and a 12-month high of $34.69. The company has a market cap of $15.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.65, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.51.

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

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be issued a $0.265 dividend. 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 3.06%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.