Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Given a $40.00 Price Target by Royal Bank Of Canada Analysts

Royal Bank Of Canada set a $40.00 target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) in a report issued on Wednesday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on BIP. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $34.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $41.67.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE BIP opened at $31.42 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $14.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 628.43 and a beta of 1.09. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 52 week low of $25.72 and a 52 week high of $36.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $31.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.82 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $5.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.95 billion. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 1.54% and a return on equity of 1.15%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.5%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio is presently 3,440.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BIP. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 39.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $606,000 after acquiring an additional 5,398 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 7,105 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $226,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 15.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 374,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,900,000 after purchasing an additional 48,787 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Capital LP purchased a new stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the 4th quarter worth about $21,099,000. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the 4th quarter worth about $591,000. Institutional investors own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

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.