SVB Wealth LLC Invests $640,000 in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 17,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $640,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. ING Groep NV bought a new position in shares of NiSource in the 3rd quarter valued at about $748,000. Thomasville National Bank increased its position in NiSource by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 567,196 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $20,850,000 after acquiring an additional 16,364 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in NiSource by 88.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $516,373,000 after acquiring an additional 6,991,608 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in NiSource by 21.7% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,712,724 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $99,720,000 after acquiring an additional 483,491 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moran Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in NiSource during the third quarter valued at $3,068,000. 91.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, NiSource presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.13.

NiSource Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE NI opened at $41.24 on Tuesday. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.98 and a fifty-two week high of $41.30. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $37.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.04. The company has a market cap of $19.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 7.87%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.53 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a positive change from NiSource’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 69.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NiSource news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction of $219,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $988,339.36. This trade represents a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.