Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Position in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI - Free Report) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,334,739 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 90,755 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.50% of NiSource worth $85,824,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its position in shares of NiSource by 153.2% during the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 871 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 527 shares during the period. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in NiSource during the third quarter valued at $33,000. Spire Wealth Management purchased a new stake in NiSource in the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in NiSource in the third quarter worth $47,000. Finally, JFS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 423.6% during the 3rd quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,550 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 1,254 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on NI. Mizuho lifted their price objective on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of NiSource in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $39.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NiSource has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $38.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NiSource news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of NiSource 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 owns 24,758 shares of the company's stock, valued at $988,339.36. The trade was a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

NiSource Price Performance

NYSE NI traded up $0.11 on Friday, hitting $40.09. The stock had a trading volume of 5,460,101 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,914,759. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $37.35 and a 200-day moving average of $35.54. The company has a market capitalization of $18.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51. NiSource Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.59 and a 52-week high of $40.22.

NiSource (NYSE:NI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 7.87%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.53 EPS. Equities analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. 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 2.79%. NiSource's payout ratio is presently 69.14%.

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.