Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan Makes New $27,000 Investment in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan purchased a new position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 726 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $27,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in NiSource by 25.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,352,182 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,852,000 after purchasing an additional 273,159 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of NiSource in the third quarter worth $348,000. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NiSource during the third quarter worth $227,000. Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of NiSource by 271.7% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 35,551 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after buying an additional 25,987 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp acquired a new position in shares of NiSource in the 3rd quarter valued at $280,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $988,339.36. This trade represents a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Mizuho lifted their price target on NiSource from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of NiSource from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $39.33.

NiSource Trading Up 0.7 %

NI stock opened at $39.21 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.20, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.48. NiSource Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.05 and a 52-week high of $41.45. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 13.94%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.14%.

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.