NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) Announces $0.28 Quarterly Dividend

NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 18th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of 0.28 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, May 20th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%.

NiSource has increased its dividend by an average of 6.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. NiSource has a payout ratio of 55.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect NiSource to earn $2.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.2%.

NiSource Price Performance

NiSource stock opened at $38.91 on Wednesday. NiSource has a 52 week low of $26.26 and a 52 week high of $41.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $38.49 and a 200-day moving average of $36.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NiSource will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Activity at NiSource

In related news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction of $219,560.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,758 shares in the company, valued at $988,339.36. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.