Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Downgraded to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $37.00 to $34.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. TD Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, National Bankshares cut shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and set a $32.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $38.20.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners stock opened at $29.28 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $28.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.73. The company has a market capitalization of $13.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 94.45 and a beta of 0.99. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 12-month low of $21.03 and a 12-month high of $37.32.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.20) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.79 by ($0.99). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 2.05% and a return on equity of 1.23%. The firm had revenue of $4.97 billion for the quarter. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st will be issued a $0.405 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.53%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s payout ratio is 522.58%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 9.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 538,703 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,838,000 after acquiring an additional 45,880 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 20.5% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 56,487 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,661,000 after purchasing an additional 9,592 shares during the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance bought a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the 3rd quarter valued at $206,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 12.3% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,553,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $163,278,000 after buying an additional 607,302 shares during the period. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC bought a new position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the third quarter worth $219,000. 57.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

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.