Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC Invests $332,000 in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 9,026 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $332,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of NiSource by 110.9% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,273 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195 shares during the last quarter. Thomasville National Bank lifted 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 purchasing an additional 16,364 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in NiSource by 21.7% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,712,724 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $99,720,000 after buying an additional 483,491 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of NiSource by 88.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $516,373,000 after buying an additional 6,991,608 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Contravisory Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NiSource during the 4th quarter valued at $566,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NiSource Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NI opened at $39.28 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.24, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.53. NiSource Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.60 and a twelve month high of $41.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.78.

NiSource (NYSE:NI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. NiSource's dividend payout ratio is presently 69.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho increased their target price 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 increased their price objective on NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group increased their price target 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. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NiSource from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NiSource has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $41.11.

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.

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