Sovereign Investment Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 21,074 NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Sovereign Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 21,074 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $775,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 period. ING Groep NV purchased a new position in NiSource during the 3rd quarter valued at $748,000. Thomasville National Bank boosted its holdings in NiSource by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 567,196 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $20,850,000 after acquiring an additional 16,364 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in NiSource by 21.7% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,712,724 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $99,720,000 after acquiring an additional 483,491 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in NiSource by 88.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $516,373,000 after acquiring an additional 6,991,608 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at NiSource

In other NiSource news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction of $219,560.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,758 shares in the company, valued at approximately $988,339.36. The trade was a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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NiSource Stock Down 1.2 %

NYSE NI traded down $0.46 on Tuesday, reaching $38.91. 5,964,281 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,676,524. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $38.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.50. The company has a market cap of $18.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.02, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50. NiSource Inc. has a 12 month low of $26.26 and a 12 month high of $41.45.

NiSource (NYSE:NI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 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 business earned $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a positive change from NiSource's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.88%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. NiSource's dividend payout ratio is currently 69.14%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, NiSource has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $38.13.

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.