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

Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (NYSE:BBU) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the six analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $32.00.

Separately, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Brookfield Business Partners from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th.

Institutional Trading of Brookfield Business Partners

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Brookfield Business Partners during the second quarter valued at approximately $307,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Brookfield Business Partners by 2.0% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 90,242 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,701,000 after purchasing an additional 1,808 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in Brookfield Business Partners by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 767,726 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $15,036,000 after purchasing an additional 22,886 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its holdings in Brookfield Business Partners by 12.7% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 681,562 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,000 after purchasing an additional 77,017 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AYAL Capital Advisors Ltd boosted its stake in Brookfield Business Partners by 97.4% during the 2nd quarter. AYAL Capital Advisors Ltd now owns 45,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $848,000 after purchasing an additional 22,200 shares during the last quarter. 85.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Brookfield Business Partners Stock Down 2.1 %

BBU stock opened at $21.78 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $23.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.14. Brookfield Business Partners has a 12 month low of $16.85 and a 12 month high of $26.75. The company has a market capitalization of $1.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.50.

Brookfield Business Partners (NYSE:BBU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The business services provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $9.23 billion for the quarter. Brookfield Business Partners had a return on equity of 30.68% and a net margin of 11.77%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Brookfield Business Partners will post 5.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Brookfield Business Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.063 dividend. This is a boost from Brookfield Business Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. Brookfield Business Partners’s dividend payout ratio is presently 3.09%.

Brookfield Business Partners Company Profile

Brookfield Business Partners L.P. is a private equity firm specializing in acquisition. The firm typically invests in business services, infrastructure services, construction, energy, and industrials sector. It prefers to take majority stake in companies. The firm seeks returns of at least 15% on its investments.