Raymond James & Associates Purchases 5,666 Shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE:BEP)

Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE:BEP) (TSE:BEP) by 16.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 39,712 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,666 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Brookfield Renewable Partners were worth $1,044,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in Brookfield Renewable Partners by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 13,252,391 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $288,107,000 after acquiring an additional 117,246 shares during the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 17.4% in the third quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 1,984,628 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,318,000 after purchasing an additional 294,302 shares during the last quarter. Maven Securities LTD purchased a new position in Brookfield Renewable Partners in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,087,000. Alpine Global Management LLC bought a new stake in Brookfield Renewable Partners during the 3rd quarter valued at about $282,000. Finally, Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. boosted its position in Brookfield Renewable Partners by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 189,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,109,000 after buying an additional 10,066 shares during the period. 63.16% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BEP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 price target (down previously from $36.00) on shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners in a research note on Monday, February 12th. National Bankshares lifted their target price on Brookfield Renewable Partners from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Brookfield Renewable Partners from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.60.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Stock Performance

Shares of BEP opened at $20.77 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.57. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $22.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.87. The stock has a market cap of $5.94 billion, a P/E ratio of -64.91 and a beta of 0.80. Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. has a one year low of $19.92 and a one year high of $32.76.

Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP) (TSE:BEP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.02) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. Brookfield Renewable Partners had a net margin of 12.23% and a return on equity of 2.23%. Brookfield Renewable Partners’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.16) EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. will post -0.01 EPS for the current year.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a $0.355 dividend. This represents a $1.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.84%. This is a positive change from Brookfield Renewable Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Brookfield Renewable Partners’s dividend payout ratio is presently -421.88%.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Profile

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. owns a portfolio of renewable power generating facilities primarily in North America, Colombia, and Brazil. The company generates electricity through hydroelectric, wind, solar, distributed generation, and pumped storage, as well as renewable natural gas, carbon capture and storage, recycling, cogeneration biomass, nuclear services, and power transformation.