Brokerages Set Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) PT at $42.50

Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) have received a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $42.50.

BIP has been the topic of several research reports. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com raised Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 1st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BIP. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 26,675,618 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $848,018,000 after buying an additional 2,866,195 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 24.6% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 4,003,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $140,273,000 after acquiring an additional 790,078 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $22,033,000. Guardian Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the 4th quarter worth approximately $21,099,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,784,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $278,858,000 after purchasing an additional 650,892 shares during the period. 57.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

BIP stock opened at $29.70 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The company’s 50-day moving average is $31.33 and its 200-day moving average is $32.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.79 billion, a PE ratio of 742.74 and a beta of 1.10. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 1 year low of $24.84 and a 1 year high of $36.50.

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

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.79%. This is a boost from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s payout ratio is currently 4,300.00%.

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.