Bridgewater Associates LP Invests $7.18 Million in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Bridgewater Associates LP purchased a new stake in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 207,121 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,177,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MCF Advisors LLC purchased a new position in NiSource in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NiSource during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of NiSource in the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NiSource during the second quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in NiSource during the second quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on NI. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on NiSource from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NiSource from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.50.

NiSource Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE NI opened at $38.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.35. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.16. NiSource Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.80 and a 1 year high of $38.56. The company has a market cap of $17.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.11, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.51.

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

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.