Capital International Investors Purchases New Shares in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Capital International Investors bought a new position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,984,147 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $219,977,000. Capital International Investors owned 1.28% of NiSource as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of NiSource by 88.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $516,373,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,608 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in NiSource during the fourth quarter worth about $195,745,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in NiSource by 49.5% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,199,873 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $301,427,000 after buying an additional 2,714,262 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in NiSource by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 57,793,581 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,124,492,000 after buying an additional 2,459,452 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 793.3% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 883,387 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $30,609,000 after acquiring an additional 784,495 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on NI. Barclays raised their price objective on NiSource from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of NiSource from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of NiSource from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of NiSource from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $40.33.

NiSource Trading Down 0.7 %

NI traded down $0.30 during trading on Friday, hitting $39.39. The company's stock had a trading volume of 947,376 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,686,489. NiSource Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.46 and a twelve month high of $41.44. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $39.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market cap of $18.53 billion, a PE ratio of 24.31, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.48.

NiSource (NYSE:NI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share 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 previous year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. On average, analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. NiSource's dividend payout ratio is currently 69.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NiSource news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the company'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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares in the company, valued at $988,339.36. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by 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.