Washington Trust Bank Trims Stock Holdings in NiSource, Inc (NYSE:NI)

Washington Trust Bank reduced its position in shares of NiSource, Inc (NYSE:NI - Free Report) by 5.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 187,950 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 10,806 shares during the period. Washington Trust Bank's holdings in NiSource were worth $7,535,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 299.2% in the first quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 38,272 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,534,000 after acquiring an additional 28,685 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in NiSource by 21.9% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 647,519 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $25,959,000 after acquiring an additional 116,213 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of NiSource by 1,890.8% in the 1st quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 23,511 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $942,000 after acquiring an additional 22,330 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of NiSource in the 1st quarter valued at about $76,000. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its position in shares of NiSource by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 188,428 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $7,554,000 after purchasing an additional 3,485 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.64% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of NiSource from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of NiSource from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group raised their price objective on NiSource from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on NiSource from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $41.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NiSource news, Director Michael E. Jesanis sold 6,178 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.81, for a total value of $233,590.18. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,541 shares in the company, valued at $701,035.21. The trade was a 24.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Melanie B. Berman sold 6,227 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total value of $245,468.34. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 28,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,138,528.44. The trade was a 17.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,405 shares of company stock valued at $631,939 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.24% of the company's stock.

NiSource Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NI stock traded up $0.26 on Thursday, hitting $39.60. The stock had a trading volume of 4,473,565 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,128,888. NiSource, Inc has a 12-month low of $28.78 and a 12-month high of $41.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The business has a 50 day moving average of $39.35 and a 200 day moving average of $38.75. The stock has a market cap of $18.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.54.

NiSource (NYSE:NI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. NiSource had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 14.67%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that NiSource, Inc will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 31st. NiSource's payout ratio is 60.54%.

NiSource 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.