Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Has $5.20 Million Stock Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 19.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 195,778 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 31,592 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $5,198,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,525,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $226,353,000 after purchasing an additional 1,826,202 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of NiSource by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,101,773 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $199,952,000 after buying an additional 326,999 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its position in shares of NiSource by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 7,272,420 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $193,083,000 after buying an additional 450,818 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of NiSource by 123.6% in the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,593,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $148,517,000 after acquiring an additional 3,092,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 4,336,801 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $115,142,000 after acquiring an additional 322,360 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on NI. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $31.00 price target (up from $30.00) on shares of NiSource in a report on Thursday, May 9th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on NiSource from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. StockNews.com upgraded NiSource from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 24th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on NiSource from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.50.

NiSource Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE NI traded down $0.12 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $28.17. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,806,798 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,178,376. The company has a market capitalization of $12.63 billion, a PE ratio of 18.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. NiSource Inc. has a 52 week low of $22.86 and a 52 week high of $29.44. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.02.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.02. NiSource had a return on equity of 9.56% and a net margin of 14.23%. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.77 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be paid a $0.265 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.76%. NiSource’s payout ratio is 69.28%.

Insider Activity

In other NiSource news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 3,742 shares of NiSource stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.96, for a total transaction of $104,626.32. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 19,978 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $558,584.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.