Walleye Capital LLC Acquires 50,051 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Walleye Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 275.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 68,244 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,051 shares during the quarter. Walleye Capital LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $2,509,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brooklyn Investment Group raised its position in shares of NiSource by 153.2% in the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 871 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 527 shares in the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management bought a new stake in NiSource during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of NiSource in the 4th quarter valued at $66,000. Finally, Eastern Bank increased its stake in shares of NiSource by 1,242.2% in the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 2,161 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho raised their price objective on NiSource from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of NiSource from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, NiSource currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.33.

NiSource Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE NI opened at $39.21 on Friday. NiSource Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.46 and a 1 year high of $41.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The firm has a market cap of $18.45 billion, a PE ratio of 24.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.37.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. NiSource’s payout ratio is presently 69.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction of $219,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares in the company, valued at $988,339.36. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.24% 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.