Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Shares Purchased by Capital Analysts LLC

Capital Analysts LLC lifted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) by 85.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,373 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,020 shares during the period. Capital Analysts LLC’s holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners were worth $139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Empire Financial Management Company LLC increased its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Empire Financial Management Company LLC now owns 36,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,901 shares during the last quarter. MGO One Seven LLC increased its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 7,105 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $226,000 after acquiring an additional 372 shares during the last quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury increased its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury now owns 266,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,454,000 after acquiring an additional 1,906 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 6.7% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Value Partners Investments Inc. increased its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. now owns 18,278 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $580,000 after acquiring an additional 1,263 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BIP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James raised their target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 1st. TD Securities lifted their target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $42.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BIP opened at $29.12 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $29.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.04. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 1-year low of $25.72 and a 1-year high of $36.50. The company has a market cap of $13.52 billion, a PE ratio of 728.18 and a beta of 1.04.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 1.17% and a net margin of 1.64%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. will post 3.45 EPS for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.43 dividend. This is a boost from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.91%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4,300.00%.

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.