Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP) Cut to Moderate Buy at Raymond James Financial

Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP) (TSE:BEP) from a strong-buy rating to a moderate buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

BEP has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Brookfield Renewable Partners from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 5th. CIBC cut their price objective on Brookfield Renewable Partners from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperformer” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Barclays initiated coverage on Brookfield Renewable Partners in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $27.00 price target for the company. Finally, National Bank Financial upgraded Brookfield Renewable Partners to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, June 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.67.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Price Performance

NYSE:BEP opened at $27.19 on Thursday. Brookfield Renewable Partners has a 1 year low of $19.29 and a 1 year high of $29.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -26.92 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.22.

Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP) (TSE:BEP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported ($0.35) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.26) by ($0.09). Brookfield Renewable Partners had a negative net margin of 0.79% and a negative return on equity of 0.15%. The company had revenue of $907.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.73 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Brookfield Renewable Partners will post -1.04 EPS for the current year.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th were issued a $0.373 dividend. This represents a $1.49 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 30th. Brookfield Renewable Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -147.52%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brookfield Renewable Partners

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BEP. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 16,839,565 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $373,164,000 after acquiring an additional 374,087 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,344,041 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $184,904,000 after buying an additional 492,199 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 7,059,557 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $160,585,000 after buying an additional 315,272 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 30.1% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,975,447 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $65,866,000 after buying an additional 689,196 shares during the period. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 2,715,043 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $61,433,000 after acquiring an additional 323,619 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.16% of the company’s stock.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Company 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.