Proficio Capital Partners LLC Takes $5.31 Million Position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 166,898 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,306,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 23,809,423 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $834,282,000 after purchasing an additional 616,373 shares in the last quarter. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. boosted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 72.3% in the 3rd quarter. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. now owns 645,740 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $22,636,000 after purchasing an additional 271,020 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 32,093 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,406 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 159.5% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 175,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,147,000 after purchasing an additional 107,821 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the 3rd quarter worth about $77,000. Institutional investors own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BIP. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. TD Securities boosted their target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

NYSE BIP opened at $28.01 on Monday. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 52 week low of $24.84 and a 52 week high of $36.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 700.48 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $31.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.05.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 1.64% and a return on equity of 1.17%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.14%. This is a positive change from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4,300.00%.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners 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.