Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Lifted 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 research note issued to investors on Sunday morning.

Separately, Cibc World Mkts upgraded 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 given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $37.56.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

BIP stock opened at $33.19 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.81. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 1 year low of $21.03 and a 1 year high of $33.83. The firm has a market cap of $15.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 107.06 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.58.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last posted its earnings results 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). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 0.82% and a return on equity of 0.51%. The company had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.91 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.72 EPS. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s quarterly revenue was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.88%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 522.58%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 20.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,330,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,919,000. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 385,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,137,000 after acquiring an additional 38,216 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forge First Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 92.5% in the 1st quarter. Forge First Asset Management Inc. now owns 201,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,286,000 after acquiring an additional 96,890 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

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.