Archer Investment Corp Grows Holdings in NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI)

Archer Investment Corp grew its position in shares of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) by 696.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,700 shares during the quarter. Archer Investment Corp’s holdings in NiSource were worth $424,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in NiSource by 2.1% in the third quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,334 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $531,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in NiSource by 12.0% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $119,000 after buying an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. Thomasville National Bank lifted its position in NiSource by 0.7% in the second quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 53,719 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,548,000 after buying an additional 372 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in NiSource by 3.2% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 13,926 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $483,000 after buying an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aurora Investment Counsel increased its stake in NiSource by 0.7% in the second quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 62,589 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,803,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on NI shares. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on NiSource in a research note on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $39.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price target on NiSource from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Mizuho lifted their target price on NiSource from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on NiSource from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, 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 note on Thursday, September 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NiSource has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.50.

NiSource Stock Performance

NYSE:NI traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $36.15. The company had a trading volume of 176,821 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,020,147. NiSource Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.80 and a 1-year high of $36.47. The firm has a market cap of $16.87 billion, a PE ratio of 21.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.51. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $34.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.35.

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