Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $38.60.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on BIP shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. National Bankshares downgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $32.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Raymond James upped their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. National Bank Financial lowered Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, TD Securities cut their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 2nd.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Trading Up 3.0 %

BIP stock opened at $26.33 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $29.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.64. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a fifty-two week low of $21.03 and a fifty-two week high of $37.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 188.08 and a beta of 0.95.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by ($0.99). The business had revenue of $4.97 billion during the quarter. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 1.34% and a return on equity of 0.79%. Analysts expect that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This is an increase from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 1,157.23%.

Institutional Trading of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 22.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,951,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $628,265,000 after acquiring an additional 3,613,608 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 19,209,097 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $604,894,000 after purchasing an additional 1,678,140 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 17,876,978 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $525,947,000 after purchasing an additional 1,362,482 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 28.2% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 7,118,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $224,468,000 after purchasing an additional 1,565,246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,681,918 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $211,259,000 after buying an additional 1,112,217 shares during the period. 57.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Company Profile

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 2,900 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 8.1 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 0.6 million long-term contracted sub-metering services.