First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Sells 1,047 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. trimmed its stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,523 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,047 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $850,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of NiSource by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,946,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,519,823,000 after buying an additional 991,336 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 146.2% in the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 8,907,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $246,388,000 after purchasing an additional 5,290,322 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 6,374,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $183,636,000 after purchasing an additional 44,598 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,908,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $141,415,000 after purchasing an additional 67,697 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 68.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,342,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $96,407,000 after purchasing an additional 1,353,977 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NiSource Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:NI opened at $34.49 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $15.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.90, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.63. NiSource Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.58 and a 1 year high of $35.48. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $34.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.03.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $986.00 million. NiSource had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 14.63%. NiSource’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.19 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st will be given a dividend of $0.265 per share. This represents a $1.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on NI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays lifted their price objective on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Mizuho lifted their price objective on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on NiSource from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.50.

NiSource Company 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.