NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) Shares Purchased by Crumly & Associates Inc.

Crumly & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 90.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 18,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,551 shares during the quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc.’s holdings in NiSource were worth $478,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NI. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 10.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,613,623 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,673,113,000 after acquiring an additional 5,153,843 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 8.9% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,192,844 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $769,332,000 after acquiring an additional 1,970,696 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 0.3% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,111,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $323,582,000 after acquiring an additional 39,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NiSource by 1.9% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,609,035 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $240,171,000 after acquiring an additional 161,412 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in NiSource by 4.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,101,773 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $199,952,000 after purchasing an additional 326,999 shares in the last quarter. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 11,141 shares of NiSource stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.66, for a total transaction of $297,019.06. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $632,375.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

NiSource Stock Performance

NYSE NI traded down $0.18 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $27.07. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,484,261 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,741,827. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.08. NiSource Inc. has a 52 week low of $22.86 and a 52 week high of $28.95. The stock has a market cap of $12.13 billion, a PE ratio of 18.41, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.49.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). NiSource had a return on equity of 10.10% and a net margin of 12.98%. The business had revenue of $1.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.50 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that NiSource Inc. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NiSource Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.265 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $1.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.92%. NiSource’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.11%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on NiSource from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded NiSource from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 24th.

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.