Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Cibc World Mkts

Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Friday morning, Zacks.com reports.

BIP has been the topic of several other reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $37.00 to $34.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $38.20.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners stock traded down $0.21 on Friday, reaching $29.96. 436,353 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 479,673. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $29.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 97.26 and a beta of 1.03. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a twelve month low of $21.03 and a twelve month high of $33.52.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.80). The business had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.91 billion. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 0.82% and a return on equity of 0.50%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.23 EPS for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be given a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s payout ratio is presently 522.58%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 22.1% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,951,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $628,265,000 after purchasing an additional 3,613,608 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,365,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,198,095,000 after buying an additional 3,141,038 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 19,209,097 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $604,894,000 after buying an additional 1,678,140 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 28.2% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 7,118,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $224,468,000 after acquiring an additional 1,565,246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,681,918 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $211,259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,112,217 shares during the period. 57.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.