Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $38.50.

Several analysts recently issued reports on BIP shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Cibc World Mkts raised Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 15th.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BIP opened at $34.09 on Friday. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a fifty-two week low of $21.03 and a fifty-two week high of $35.48. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $32.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.01. 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 has a market cap of $15.81 billion, a PE ratio of 109.97 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.80). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 0.51% and a net margin of 0.82%. The firm had revenue of $5.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.91 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were given a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 522.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Belpointe Asset Management LLC raised its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 12,011 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $378,000 after buying an additional 536 shares during the period. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC raised its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC now owns 58,838 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,853,000 after buying an additional 2,232 shares during the period. Novak & Powell Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the fourth quarter valued at $805,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the fourth quarter valued at $192,000. 57.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.