NiSource Inc (NI) Stock Price & How to Invest

NiSource operates two reportable segments. Columbia Operations is the natural gas distribution business, made up of the Columbia Gas utilities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland. NIPSCO Operations covers northern Indiana, where the company runs both a gas utility and a vertically integrated electric utility that has been retiring coal generation and replacing it with wind, solar, batteries and, most recently, new combined cycle gas capacity. Roughly 7,700 employees serve about 3.3 million natural gas customers and about 500,000 electric customers. Revenue was approximately $6.9 billion on a trailing twelve month basis through the June 2026 quarter, and essentially all of it comes from rates set by state commissions rather than from competitive markets.

What changed the investment picture is Indiana's data center demand. NIPSCO has signed and won regulatory approval for special contracts with Amazon Data Services and Alphabet, and a majority-owned generation subsidiary called GenCo, in which Blackstone Infrastructure Partners holds a minority interest, is building dedicated combined cycle gas capacity and roughly 500 MW of battery storage to serve that load. Management reaffirmed a 2026 to 2030 capital investment plan of $28.6 billion, split between $21.0 billion of base utility investment and $7.6 billion of strategic data center infrastructure, and guided to 9% to 11% consolidated rate base growth from 2026 through 2033. Regulated utilities earn on rate base, so a plan of that size is the growth engine. It also has to be funded, and NiSource carries roughly $17.4 billion of debt against about $70 million of cash while issuing equity through an at-the-market program.

Financing is the central risk. Funding a $28.6 billion program while already carrying roughly $17.4 billion of debt means continued bond issuance at 2026 coupons (the May 2026 notes priced at 4.75% and 5.30%) plus equity issued through an at-the-market program, and share count has already drifted from about 470.7 million in April 2025 to about 479.6 million in July 2026, so per share growth can lag rate base growth. Regulatory risk is constant: allowed returns can be trimmed, cost recovery can be delayed, and the pending Indiana and FERC approvals tied to the Amazon and Alphabet arrangements are not decided until the fourth quarter of 2026. Customer concentration is a newer exposure, since a meaningful slice of future earnings depends on a small number of hyperscaler counterparties and on data center demand in northern Indiana holding up over contract lives measured in decades. Operationally, the R.M. Schahfer coal facility was scheduled to retire at the end of December 2025 but has been kept running under successive federal emergency orders, currently through September 19, 2026, which illustrates how reliability obligations and transition plans can collide. Gas distribution earnings also swing with weather, and pipeline safety obligations under PHMSA carry both cost and, as the industry's history shows, tail risk.

14 analysts publish price targets on NI, averaging $50.11 against a $42.37 price as of August 2026, or +18.3%. The published targets run from $43.00 to $55.00, a narrow spread, and the ratings split 12 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 5 raises and 4 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full NI forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on NiSource Inc. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. A capital plan sized to the opportunity. Management reaffirmed a $28.6 billion consolidated capital investment plan for 2026 through 2030, consisting of $21.0 billion of base investment and $7.6 billion tied to data center infrastructure. The most optimistic published target, $55.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. Financing is the central risk. The most pessimistic target, $43.00, is roughly what NI is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on NI, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see NiSource Inc's investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$6.9 billion through the June 2026 quarter
• Market capitalization: ~$20.3 billion (~$42 per share on ~480 million shares)
• Diluted EPS (TTM, GAAP): ~$1.88, a trailing P/E of roughly 22.6x
• 2026 adjusted EPS guidance: $2.02 to $2.07, reaffirmed August 5, 2026 (~21x at recent prices)
• Dividend: ~$1.20 annualized, a yield near 2.8%
• Balance sheet: ~$17.4 billion total debt against ~$70 million cash; ~$11.9 billion total equity including ~$2.3 billion of noncontrolling interest

At roughly 22.6x trailing GAAP earnings and about 21x the midpoint of 2026 adjusted guidance, NiSource trades at a premium to the typical regulated gas utility, which is the market pricing in the data center growth rather than the current earnings stream. Quarterly numbers are seasonal and can look alarming out of context: second quarter 2026 GAAP EPS was $0.09 against $0.22 a year earlier, while first half adjusted EPS still rose to $1.22 from $1.19. The GenCo structure also matters for anyone comparing per share figures, because Blackstone's minority interest sits in noncontrolling interest and absorbs part of the generation economics.

Other names that sit close to NI: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get NI exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so NI sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where NI fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

NiSource is a regulated utility whose returns now hinge on whether a very large, partly data center funded capital program earns its allowed returns without the financing cost swamping the growth.

Whether NI is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is NI a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the NI stock forecast.

For income investors, whether NI pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does NI pay a dividend? And to weigh NI against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: NI vs LUV and NI vs NJR.