Insider Selling: NiSource (NYSE:NI) CFO Sells $292,500.00 in Stock

NiSource, Inc (NYSE:NI) CFO Shawn Anderson sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total value of $292,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 160,080 shares in the company, valued at $7,203,600. This trade represents a 3.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

NiSource Price Performance

NiSource stock opened at $44.50 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $21.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.82, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.53. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $41.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $44.86. NiSource, Inc has a 1 year low of $38.42 and a 1 year high of $49.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.50.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.04. NiSource had a net margin of 13.56% and a return on equity of 8.16%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.19 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that NiSource, Inc will post 2.06 earnings per share for the current year.

NiSource Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 30th. NiSource’s payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NI. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in NiSource during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,613,234,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in shares of NiSource during the 2nd quarter worth about $574,295,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in NiSource during the second quarter valued at approximately $179,838,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of NiSource during the 2nd quarter valued at $172,516,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in NiSource during the second quarter valued at about $146,785,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on NI. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of NiSource from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Weiss Ratings downgraded NiSource from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of NiSource from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 19th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH reduced their price target on shares of NiSource from $51.50 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on NiSource from $52.00 to $51.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.58.

About NiSource

NiSource Inc is a regulated energy holding company based in Merrillville, Indiana. Through its operating companies, the company provides natural gas distribution and electric utility services to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

NiSource’s natural gas operations include Columbia Gas utilities serving customers in several states, including Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Its electric utility, Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), serves customers in northern Indiana and provides both electric power and natural gas services.

The company’s operations include energy delivery infrastructure, utility system maintenance, customer services and investments intended to support reliability and the transition of its generation portfolio.