StockNews.com Lowers Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) to Sell

StockNews.com cut shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

BIP has been the subject of a number of other research reports. National Bank Financial cut shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $37.00 to $34.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. National Bankshares lowered Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and set a $32.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $38.20.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Trading Up 3.0 %

BIP stock opened at $29.28 on Friday. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 1-year low of $21.03 and a 1-year high of $37.32. The business’s 50 day moving average is $28.56 and its 200-day moving average is $28.73. The firm has a market cap of $13.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.45 and a beta of 0.99.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by ($0.99). The company had revenue of $4.97 billion during the quarter. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 2.05% and a return on equity of 1.23%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.29 EPS for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.53%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 522.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BIP. Gold Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 173,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,410,000 after purchasing an additional 4,119 shares during the period. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. lifted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 46.4% in the first quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 97,038 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,029,000 after buying an additional 30,737 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 2.2% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 37,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,185,000 after buying an additional 830 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.5% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 21,652,827 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $675,785,000 after buying an additional 1,701,587 shares during the period. Finally, Crescent Grove Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the 1st quarter valued at about $312,000. 57.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Company Profile

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.