NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) Declares $0.27 Quarterly Dividend

NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 19th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of 0.265 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, May 20th. This represents a $1.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th.

NiSource has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. NiSource has a payout ratio of 57.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect NiSource to earn $1.84 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.06 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 57.6%.

NiSource Trading Down 0.6 %

NiSource stock opened at $27.94 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. NiSource has a 52 week low of $22.86 and a 52 week high of $28.95. The company has a market capitalization of $12.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.49. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $26.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.29.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly 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 net margin of 12.98% and a return on equity of 10.10%. The company had revenue of $1.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NiSource will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at NiSource

In other NiSource news, SVP Melanie B. Berman sold 11,141 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.66, for a total transaction of $297,019.06. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $632,375.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on shares of NiSource from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of NiSource from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th.

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.