Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Shares Sold by Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada trimmed its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 45,692,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,243,895 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned approximately 0.10% of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners worth $1,452,565,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BIP. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 12.0% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 6,432,381 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $202,492,000 after acquiring an additional 171,748 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 52.1% in the 4th quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,745,974 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,477,000 after acquiring an additional 598,290 shares in the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 1,492,480 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,978,000 after acquiring an additional 94,103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 829,187 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,337,000 after buying an additional 39,565 shares during the period. 57.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BIP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $34.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. TD Securities lifted their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Raymond James lifted 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, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.67.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE:BIP opened at $32.50 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $29.44 and a 200-day moving average of $31.71. The stock has a market cap of $15.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 812.70 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.72. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a one year low of $25.72 and a one year high of $36.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2 billion. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 1.64% and a return on equity of 1.17%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -8,600.00%.

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.