Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 5.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 517 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $372,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Zimmer Partners LP boosted its holdings in NiSource by 146.2% during the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 8,907,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $246,388,000 after acquiring an additional 5,290,322 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 68.1% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,342,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $96,407,000 after purchasing an additional 1,353,977 shares during the period. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL acquired a new position in shares of NiSource in the first quarter valued at approximately $34,419,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in NiSource by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,946,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,519,823,000 after buying an additional 991,336 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in NiSource by 118.4% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,616,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,449,000 after buying an additional 876,033 shares in the last quarter. 91.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on NI. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Bank of America assumed coverage on NiSource in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $37.00 target price for the company. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on NiSource in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $39.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.50.

NiSource Stock Up 0.7 %

NI stock opened at $36.22 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $16.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.95, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. NiSource Inc. has a twelve month low of $24.61 and a twelve month high of $36.40. The company’s 50 day moving average is $34.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.41.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.05. NiSource had a net margin of 14.63% and a return on equity of 8.27%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $986.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. NiSource’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.