State Street Corp Buys 1,247,368 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

State Street Corp boosted its stake in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI - Free Report) by 5.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 22,691,174 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,247,368 shares during the period. State Street Corp owned about 4.86% of NiSource worth $786,249,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its stake in NiSource by 0.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,396,489 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $394,888,000 after buying an additional 99,882 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in NiSource by 3.0% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 10,823,095 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $375,020,000 after acquiring an additional 316,225 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in NiSource by 0.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 6,374,053 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $183,636,000 after buying an additional 44,598 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in NiSource by 53.3% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,124,909 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $176,194,000 after purchasing an additional 1,782,078 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of NiSource by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,908,547 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $141,415,000 after purchasing an additional 67,697 shares during the last quarter. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NiSource Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NiSource stock traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $37.06. 3,823,549 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,660,533. The company has a market cap of $17.30 billion, a PE ratio of 22.46, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.53. NiSource Inc. has a twelve month low of $24.80 and a twelve month high of $38.56.

NiSource (NYSE:NI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.05. NiSource had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 14.63%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $986.00 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.19 EPS. The business's revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that NiSource Inc. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on NI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of NiSource from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $37.50.

NiSource 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.