Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI – Get Rating) by 357.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,289,637 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,789,530 shares during the quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc.'s holdings in NiSource were worth $57,678,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 219.4% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 625,290 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $15,746,000 after acquiring an additional 429,503 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 6.2% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 92,999 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,343,000 after acquiring an additional 5,454 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of NiSource by 22.4% in the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 280,913 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $7,076,000 after acquiring an additional 51,366 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in NiSource by 3.4% during the second quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,758,455 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $51,857,000 after buying an additional 57,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in NiSource by 0.7% during the third quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 435,942 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $10,981,000 after buying an additional 3,011 shares during the last quarter. 92.58% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on NiSource to $31.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 14th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on NiSource to $27.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on NiSource from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $29.17.

NiSource Trading Down 1.7 %

NI traded down $0.47 during trading on Friday, hitting $26.91. 1,299,188 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,856,623. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $11.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.46. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.29. NiSource Inc. has a 1 year low of $23.78 and a 1 year high of $32.58.

NiSource (NYSE:NI – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 22nd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. NiSource had a return on equity of 11.13% and a net margin of 13.51%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that NiSource Inc. will post 1.56 EPS for the current year.

NiSource Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 6th. This is a positive change from NiSource's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.72%. NiSource's dividend payout ratio is 58.82%.

NiSource Company Profile

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NiSource, Inc is a holding company, which engages in energy solutions. Through its subsidiaries, it provides natural gas, electricity, and other products and services. It operates through the following segments: Gas Distribution Operations and Electric Operations. The Gas Distribution Operations segment focuses on natural gas service and transportation for residential, commercial, and industrial customers.

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