Jennison Associates LLC Trims Stock Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Jennison Associates LLC decreased its holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI - Free Report) by 13.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,953,256 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 1,356,224 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC owned approximately 2.00% of NiSource worth $247,647,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in NiSource by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,955,258 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,432,512,000 after purchasing an additional 1,850,842 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NiSource by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,525,528 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $226,353,000 after buying an additional 1,826,202 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. increased its holdings 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 last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its position 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 worth $148,517,000 after buying an additional 3,092,138 shares during the period. Finally, Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC boosted its holdings in NiSource by 8.0% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.64% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price target on NiSource from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NiSource from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $31.00 price objective on shares of NiSource in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $29.20.

Insider Transactions at NiSource

In other NiSource news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 3,742 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.96, for a total value of $104,626.32. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,978 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $558,584.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

NiSource Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE NI traded up $0.03 on Monday, reaching $28.57. The company had a trading volume of 3,429,725 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,316,910. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.56. NiSource Inc. has a 1 year low of $22.86 and a 1 year high of $29.44. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $28.56 and a 200-day moving average of $27.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.81 billion, a PE ratio of 18.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.50.

NiSource (NYSE:NI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.07 billion. NiSource had a net margin of 14.23% and a return on equity of 9.56%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.77 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.265 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 31st. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.71%. NiSource's dividend payout ratio is presently 69.28%.

NiSource Company Profile

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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