Baird Financial Group Inc. Sells 383 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Baird Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 25,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 383 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $930,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in NiSource by 110.9% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 1,195 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in NiSource by 21.7% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,712,724 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,720,000 after purchasing an additional 483,491 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in NiSource by 88.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $516,373,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,608 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in NiSource in the fourth quarter worth $566,000. Finally, Annex Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in NiSource in the fourth quarter worth $585,000. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NiSource Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:NI opened at $37.94 on Thursday. NiSource Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.60 and a 1 year high of $41.45. The company has a market cap of $17.86 billion, a PE ratio of 23.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.53. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $39.06 and its 200 day moving average is $37.93.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.32 billion. NiSource had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 13.94%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.85 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.95%. NiSource’s payout ratio is 60.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NiSource

In other news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total value of $219,560.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $988,339.36. The trade was a 18.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of NiSource from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NiSource from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of NiSource from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $41.50.

About NiSource

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.