Financial Analysis: CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) & Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP)

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation and institutional ownership.

Dividends

CenterPoint Energy pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners pays an annual dividend of $1.82 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. CenterPoint Energy pays out 56.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners pays out 293.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. CenterPoint Energy has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has raised its dividend for 18 consecutive years. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.8% of CenterPoint Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.9% of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of CenterPoint Energy shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares CenterPoint Energy and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CenterPoint Energy	11.61%	11.10%	2.68%
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	3.51%	2.63%	0.71%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CenterPoint Energy and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CenterPoint Energy	$9.36 billion	2.67	$1.05 billion	$1.70	22.34
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	$23.10 billion	0.71	$771.00 million	$0.62	57.77

CenterPoint Energy has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. CenterPoint Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for CenterPoint Energy and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CenterPoint Energy	0	9	9	0	2.50
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	0	3	8	0	2.73

CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus target price of $44.93, suggesting a potential upside of 18.34%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a consensus target price of $45.33, suggesting a potential upside of 26.56%. Given Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is more favorable than CenterPoint Energy.

Risk and Volatility

CenterPoint Energy has a beta of 0.46, indicating that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

CenterPoint Energy beats Brookfield Infrastructure Partners on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CenterPoint Energy

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Electric and Natural Gas. The Electric segment includes electric transmission and distribution services to electric customers and electric generation assets, as well as optimizes assets in the wholesale power market. The Natural Gas segment engages in the intrastate natural gas sales, and natural gas transportation and distribution for residential, commercial, industrial and institutional customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, and Texas; permanent pipeline connections through interconnects with various interstate and intrastate pipeline companies; and provides maintenance and repair services of home appliances to customers in Minnesota and home repair protection plans to natural gas customers in Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and Texas through a third party. It serves approximately 2,534,730 metered customers; owned 348 substations with transformer capacity of 79,719 megavolt amperes; and owned and operated 217 miles of intrastate pipeline in Louisiana and Texas. The company was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

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. This segment also offers heating, cooling, and energy solutions; gas distribution; water heaters; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioner rental, as well as other home services. Its Transport segment offers transportation, storage, and handling services for merchandise goods, commodities, and passengers through a network of approximately 22,000 km of track; 5,500 km of track network; 9,800 km of rail; and 3,300 km of motorways. The company's Midstream segment offers natural gas transmission, gathering and processing, and storage services through approximately 15,000 km of natural gas transmission pipelines; 570 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage; 17 natural gas processing plants; and 10,600 km of gas gathering pipelines, as well as 525,000 tonnes polypropylene production capacity. Its Data segment operates approximately 228,000 operational telecom towers; approximately 54,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables; approximately 1 million fiber-to-the-premise connections; two semiconductor manufacturing facilities; and 70 distributed antenna systems, as well as 135 data centers and 750 megawatts of critical load capacity and an additional approximate 670 megawatts of contracted capacity. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. operates as a subsidiary of Brookfield Corporation.