Forensic Analysis · Combined Electric & Other Services · as of Nov 8, 2026
Nisource Inc. (NI)
A forensic read on Nisource Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
10.3%
ROE
23.5%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Nisource Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.
What the filings flag
FCF ($420M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $530M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($420M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $2.4B — 22% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $950M past operating cash flow — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of. New debt covered it: total debt rose $2.1B over FY2025, while cash and long-term marketable securities rose $13M.
+12.4%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +12.4% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by receivables up +24% against revenue +23% and PP&E up +13% against revenue +23%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 6% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 12.4%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
4.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.7% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 0.4-point range. After-tax operating profit was $1.0B in FY2023 and $1.4B in FY2025, with operating income at 24.2% of revenue in FY2023, 27.6% in FY2024 and 28.1% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +30% across FY2023–FY2025, from $23.6B to $30.6B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 4.3% the older base was already earning.
+2.9%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +6% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+2.9%/yr). The count is growing — 447.9M shares in FY2023, 474.5M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.9% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~6%.
0.8% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.8% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.11 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 2.9% a year across FY2023–FY2025 and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$6.52B
Revenue Growth YoY+23.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+10.4%
Net Margin14.3%
Free Cash Flow-$420.0M
Return on Equity10.3%
Debt / Equity1.64x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Nisource Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?