Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP - Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on BIP. Citigroup dropped their target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $34.00 to $31.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $41.67.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

NYSE:BIP traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $32.34. The stock had a trading volume of 253,871 shares, compared to its average volume of 440,791. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.77. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 52 week low of $25.72 and a 52 week high of $36.50. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $32.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.02 billion, a PE ratio of -1,618.24 and a beta of 1.08.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP - Get Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2 billion. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 1.04% and a net margin of 1.41%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.78 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th were paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.32%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 30th. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -8,600.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 3.5% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 27,621,080 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $822,832,000 after purchasing an additional 945,462 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,784,509 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $278,858,000 after acquiring an additional 650,892 shares in the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 4.3% in the first quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 6,709,573 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $197,811,000 after purchasing an additional 277,192 shares during the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management increased its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 33.5% in the first quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 5,795,677 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $172,537,000 after purchasing an additional 1,453,772 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 3.5% in the first quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 4,686,497 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $139,611,000 after purchasing an additional 158,881 shares during the last quarter. 57.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.