Williamson Legacy Group LLC Buys Shares of 7,310 NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Williamson Legacy Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 7,310 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $269,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of NI. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,334 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $531,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $119,000 after buying an additional 369 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,457 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $363,000 after buying an additional 414 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 13,926 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $483,000 after buying an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 27,046 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $937,000 after buying an additional 432 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

NiSource Stock Up 1.7 %

NI opened at $40.79 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $37.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.91. NiSource Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.71 and a twelve month high of $40.88. 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 firm has a market cap of $19.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.54.

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 period last year, the business earned $0.53 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.75%. NiSource’s payout ratio is 69.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on NI. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Mizuho boosted their price target on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $38.13.

Insider Transactions at NiSource

In other news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction of $219,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares in the company, valued at $988,339.36. The trade was a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.