NiSource Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.28 (NYSE:NI)

NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 18th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of 0.28 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, May 20th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%.

NiSource has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.4% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. NiSource has a payout ratio of 55.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect NiSource to earn $2.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.2%.

NiSource Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NI opened at $38.91 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.51. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $38.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.28 billion, a PE ratio of 24.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50. NiSource has a 52 week low of $26.26 and a 52 week high of $41.45.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.05). NiSource had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 7.87%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. Analysts predict that NiSource will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of NiSource from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total transaction of $219,560.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $988,339.36. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.