Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Raises Stock Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 88,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,092 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $3,064,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in NiSource in the first quarter worth $321,000. Bayesian Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of NiSource in the 1st quarter worth about $487,000. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 598,359 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,551,000 after purchasing an additional 20,060 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in NiSource by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 9,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $269,000 after purchasing an additional 499 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank raised its position in NiSource by 57.6% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 115,176 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,186,000 after purchasing an additional 42,104 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on NiSource from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Mizuho upped their price objective on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of NiSource in a research note on Monday, October 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $39.00 target price for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.50.

NiSource Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NI opened at $38.25 on Thursday. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $24.80 and a fifty-two week high of $38.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.46. The company has a market cap of $17.85 billion, a PE ratio of 23.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.51. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.08.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $986.00 million. NiSource had a net margin of 14.63% and a return on equity of 8.27%. 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 posted $0.19 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.