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

Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) have earned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $38.20.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Cibc World Mkts raised Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Performance

NYSE BIP opened at $31.96 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.83 billion, a PE ratio of 103.10 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s fifty day moving average is $29.62 and its 200 day moving average is $29.42. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a fifty-two week low of $21.03 and a fifty-two week high of $33.00.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.72 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.23 EPS for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Dividend Announcement

The business 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 is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.07%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s payout ratio is currently 522.58%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 22.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,951,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $628,265,000 after purchasing an additional 3,613,608 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.9% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,365,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,198,095,000 after purchasing an additional 3,141,038 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 19,209,097 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $604,894,000 after purchasing an additional 1,678,140 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 2,562.9% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,615,448 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $44,328,000 after purchasing an additional 1,554,782 shares during the period. Finally, CCLA Investment Management boosted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 35.0% in the second quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 4,341,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $119,180,000 after purchasing an additional 1,125,964 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.