Van ECK Associates Corp Grows Stock Holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI - Free Report) by 15.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 287,820 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 37,712 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned 0.06% of NiSource worth $8,292,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Zimmer Partners LP grew 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 last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in NiSource by 123.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 3,092,138 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in NiSource by 330.9% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,463,203 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $95,792,000 after buying an additional 2,659,551 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of NiSource in the fourth quarter worth approximately $70,090,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NiSource by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,955,258 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,432,512,000 after buying an additional 1,850,842 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NiSource from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Mizuho started coverage on NiSource in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $33.00 price objective on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on NiSource from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $31.00.

NiSource Stock Performance

NYSE:NI traded up $0.12 on Tuesday, hitting $33.18. The stock had a trading volume of 2,869,871 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,259,573. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $30.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.81. The stock has a market cap of $14.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.50. NiSource Inc. has a 52-week low of $22.86 and a 52-week high of $33.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30.

NiSource (NYSE:NI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.06. NiSource had a net margin of 14.76% and a return on equity of 9.15%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.11 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that NiSource Inc. will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.265 per share. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. 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.