Principal Street Partners LLC Sells 413 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Principal Street Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,851 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 413 shares during the period. Principal Street Partners LLC’s holdings in NiSource were worth $303,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in NiSource in the second quarter valued at $25,000. MCF Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NiSource in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of NiSource during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of NiSource during the 3rd quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in NiSource during the second quarter worth approximately $43,000. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price target on NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of NiSource in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NiSource currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.50.

NiSource Stock Performance

Shares of NI stock opened at $38.23 on Wednesday. NiSource Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.80 and a 52 week high of $38.28. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.01. The firm has a market cap of $17.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.17, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.46.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.05. NiSource had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 14.63%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $986.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. NiSource’s revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NiSource Inc. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current year.

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.