Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) has earned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the ten research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $37.56.

Several brokerages have commented on BIP. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 7th.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE BIP opened at $33.15 on Monday. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 52 week low of $21.03 and a 52 week high of $33.83. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $31.06 and its 200 day moving average is $29.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 106.94 and a beta of 1.05.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last released its 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). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 0.82% and a return on equity of 0.51%. The firm had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.91 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s quarterly revenue was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be issued a $0.405 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.89%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s payout ratio is presently 522.58%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 20.0% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the fourth quarter worth $5,330,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the first quarter valued at $4,919,000. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 385,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,137,000 after purchasing an additional 38,216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forge First Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 92.5% during the 1st quarter. Forge First Asset Management Inc. now owns 201,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,286,000 after purchasing an additional 96,890 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.