Aurora Investment Counsel Has $303,000 Stock Holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Aurora Investment Counsel trimmed its position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI - Free Report) by 86.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,738 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 53,851 shares during the quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel's holdings in NiSource were worth $303,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in NI. Zimmer Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 146.2% in the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 8,907,743 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $246,388,000 after acquiring an additional 5,290,322 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can lifted 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 worth $96,407,000 after acquiring an additional 1,353,977 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. acquired a new position in shares of NiSource in the third quarter worth approximately $32,162,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 118.4% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,616,189 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $46,449,000 after acquiring an additional 876,033 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 5,767.3% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 827,880 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $23,851,000 after acquiring an additional 813,770 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on NI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America started coverage on NiSource in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $37.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho lifted their target price on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on NiSource from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NiSource has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $37.50.

NiSource Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE NI opened at $37.30 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $17.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.51. NiSource Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.80 and a 52 week high of $37.31. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $34.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17.

NiSource (NYSE:NI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $986.00 million. NiSource had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 14.63%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities 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.

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