First Financial Bankshares Inc Sells 4,298 Shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

First Financial Bankshares Inc trimmed its position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 998,178 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,298 shares during the quarter. First Financial Bankshares Inc’s holdings in NiSource were worth $36,693,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NI. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 110.9% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 1,195 shares in the last quarter. Thomasville National Bank lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 567,196 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,850,000 after purchasing an additional 16,364 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 21.7% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,712,724 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,720,000 after purchasing an additional 483,491 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of NiSource by 88.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,902,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $516,373,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,608 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moran Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NiSource during the third quarter worth approximately $3,068,000. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NiSource Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE NI opened at $38.91 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.54. NiSource Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.26 and a fifty-two week high of $41.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.41.

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

NiSource Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%. NiSource’s payout ratio is 69.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NiSource news, CAO Gunnar Gode sold 5,500 shares of NiSource stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.92, for a total value of $219,560.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,758 shares in the company, valued at approximately $988,339.36. The trade was a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.