Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Given Average Rating of “Buy” by Brokerages

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) has earned an average rating of “Buy” from the seven research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $41.67.

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 1st.

Institutional Trading of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BIP. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 3.5% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 27,621,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $822,832,000 after acquiring an additional 945,462 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,784,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $278,858,000 after purchasing an additional 650,892 shares in the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 6,709,573 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $197,811,000 after purchasing an additional 277,192 shares in the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management grew its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 33.5% in the 1st quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 5,795,677 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $172,537,000 after purchasing an additional 1,453,772 shares during the period. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. increased its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 18.6% during the 1st quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 2,722,101 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $80,980,000 after purchasing an additional 426,248 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Performance

BIP stock opened at $32.89 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $29.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.70. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a fifty-two week low of $25.72 and a fifty-two week high of $36.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.27 billion, a PE ratio of 822.36 and a beta of 1.07.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2 billion. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 1.17% and a net margin of 1.64%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.45 EPS for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.23%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio is -8,600.00%.

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.