Bailard Inc. Acquires 10,816 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Bailard Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 55.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 30,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,816 shares during the quarter. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $805,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in NI. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of NiSource by 20.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,070,847 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $125,149,000 after purchasing an additional 865,245 shares in the last quarter. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd grew its position in shares of NiSource by 25.7% during the 4th quarter. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd now owns 2,786,453 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $73,980,000 after purchasing an additional 568,980 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP purchased a new position in NiSource in the third quarter worth $13,918,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its position in NiSource by 65.1% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,191,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,394,000 after acquiring an additional 469,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its position in NiSource by 10.5% in the third quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 4,014,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,076,000 after acquiring an additional 382,569 shares in the last quarter. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 11,141 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.66, for a total transaction of $297,019.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $632,375.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on NI. StockNews.com upgraded shares of NiSource from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of NiSource from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd.

NiSource Stock Performance

NiSource stock opened at $27.94 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The company has a market capitalization of $12.52 billion, a PE ratio of 19.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.49. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.29. NiSource Inc. has a twelve month low of $22.86 and a twelve month high of $28.95.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $1.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NiSource had a return on equity of 10.10% and a net margin of 12.98%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.265 per share. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.11%.

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.