Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Increases Dividend to $0.43 Per Share

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.43 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This is a boost from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has increased its dividend by an average of 6.0% per year over the last three years. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a dividend payout ratio of 121.8% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to earn $3.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.62 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Trading Down 2.4 %

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners stock opened at $32.78 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.77. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a one year low of $24.84 and a one year high of $36.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last released its 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 0.03% and a return on equity of 0.02%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on BIP. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com raised shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, TD Securities raised their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.20.

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.