Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Receives $42.50 Average PT from Brokerages

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) has been given an average rating of “Buy” by the seven research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $42.50.

BIP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research note on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 1st. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, TD Securities increased their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BIP opened at $28.65 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $13.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 716.33 and a beta of 1.10. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 1 year low of $24.84 and a 1 year high of $36.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.21.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 1.17% and a net margin of 1.64%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.00%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This is a boost from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s payout ratio is currently 4,300.00%.

Institutional Trading of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 26,675,618 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $848,018,000 after purchasing an additional 2,866,195 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,784,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $278,858,000 after acquiring an additional 650,892 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 6,432,381 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $202,492,000 after acquiring an additional 171,748 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 24.6% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 4,003,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $140,273,000 after acquiring an additional 790,078 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,550,270 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $89,362,000 after purchasing an additional 130,371 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

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.