Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Raised to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report published on Sunday.

Separately, Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $37.56.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners stock opened at $32.57 on Friday. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 52-week low of $21.03 and a 52-week high of $33.83. The company has a market cap of $15.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 105.06 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $31.42 and its 200 day moving average is $29.67.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.10) earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.91 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.72 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th will be paid a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.97%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio is presently 522.58%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BIP. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. grew its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 52.9% during the 2nd quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 148,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,073,000 after acquiring an additional 51,378 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 16.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 37,032 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,016,000 after acquiring an additional 5,108 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,068 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $496,000 after acquiring an additional 591 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 9.9% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 67,056 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 6,024 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Select Equity Group L.P. grew its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 29.6% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 4,202,842 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $115,326,000 after acquiring an additional 960,120 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.