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

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

NiSource has increased its dividend by an average of 6.0% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. NiSource has a payout ratio of 57.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 %

Shares of NYSE:NI opened at $27.94 on Friday. NiSource has a 52-week low of $22.86 and a 52-week high of $28.95. The company has a market cap of $12.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.49. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $26.96 and its 200-day moving average is $26.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.85.

NiSource (NYSE:NI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). NiSource had a return on equity of 10.10% and a net margin of 12.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that NiSource will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

NiSource Company 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.