Townsquare Capital LLC Makes New $245,000 Investment in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Townsquare Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 7,085 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $245,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NI. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 9,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $269,000 after purchasing an additional 499 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 424.4% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 68,726 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,901,000 after purchasing an additional 55,620 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 57.2% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 11,882 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $329,000 after purchasing an additional 4,324 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NiSource in the 2nd quarter valued at about $234,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 52.3% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,025 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $433,000 after purchasing an additional 5,157 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NiSource Stock Performance

NI stock opened at $37.08 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $17.31 billion, a PE ratio of 22.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The business has a 50 day moving average of $35.75 and a 200-day moving average of $32.51. NiSource Inc. has a 12-month low of $24.80 and a 12-month high of $38.56.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $986.00 million. NiSource had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 14.63%. NiSource’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on NiSource in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $39.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Mizuho boosted their target price on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NiSource currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.50.

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.