Cerity Partners LLC Purchases 3,240 Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP)

Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 78,555 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,240 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners were worth $2,474,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.3% during 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 last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 16,337,632 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $480,326,000 after purchasing an additional 1,714,740 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 15,750,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $488,100,000 after purchasing an additional 938,006 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 12.1% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,344,597 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $420,203,000 after purchasing an additional 685,194 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,121,118 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $189,693,000 after purchasing an additional 169,285 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Up 3.0 %

BIP stock opened at $26.33 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $12.15 billion, a PE ratio of 187.73 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.68. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 52 week low of $21.03 and a 52 week high of $37.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.20) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by ($0.99). The company 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. will post 3.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on BIP. National Bank Financial downgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. TD Securities dropped their target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.60.

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.