StockNews.com Upgrades Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) to “Hold”

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday.

BIP has been the topic of a number of other reports. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped 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 report on Thursday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.56.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners stock opened at $32.15 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.50. The company has a market cap of $14.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 103.71 and a beta of 1.03. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 12-month low of $21.03 and a 12-month high of $33.23.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.80). The company had revenue of $5.14 billion for 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%. The firm’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 firm posted $0.72 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 37,032 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,016,000 after purchasing an additional 5,108 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,068 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $496,000 after purchasing an additional 591 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 67,056 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 6,024 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. boosted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 29.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 960,120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,147,654 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $168,680,000 after buying an additional 257,587 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.