T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Grows Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 10.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,370,032 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,965,334 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $785,563,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan acquired a new position in shares of NiSource in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its stake in NiSource by 153.2% during the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 871 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 527 shares during the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of NiSource in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NiSource in the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 95.7% during the fourth quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 1,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $62,000 after purchasing an additional 821 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

NiSource Price Performance

NYSE:NI opened at $39.00 on Wednesday. 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $39.26 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.44. NiSource Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.46 and a 1-year high of $41.45. The firm has a market cap of $18.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.48.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released 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 previous year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.87%. NiSource’s payout ratio is 69.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the company’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 transaction of $219,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $988,339.36. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.