Cannell & Spears LLC Sells 6,751 Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP)

Cannell & Spears LLC lessened its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) by 4.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 139,272 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 6,751 shares during the quarter. Cannell & Spears LLC’s holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners were worth $4,427,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 26,675,618 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $848,018,000 after buying an additional 2,866,195 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 24.6% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $22,033,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 52.1% during the 4th quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,745,974 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,477,000 after acquiring an additional 598,290 shares during the period. Finally, Addenda Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 129.5% during the 4th quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 680,481 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $21,632,000 after purchasing an additional 384,000 shares during the last quarter. 57.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on BIP. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com upgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 1st. TD Securities boosted their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Raymond James increased 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 research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $42.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners stock opened at $29.80 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $31.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.87. The company has a market cap of $13.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 745.21 and a beta of 1.10. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 12-month low of $24.84 and a 12-month 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.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 1.64% and a return on equity of 1.17%. On average, equities analysts expect that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a $0.43 dividend. This is a positive change from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4,300.00%.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners 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.