Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP - Get Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN was the target of a large decrease in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,020,000 shares, a decrease of 15.7% from the April 30th total of 1,210,000 shares. Currently, 0.2% of the company's shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 640,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.6 days.

Institutional Trading of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.5% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 24,734 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $737,000 after acquiring an additional 1,931 shares during the last quarter. SCS Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the first quarter worth about $24,786,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 12.2% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,802,475 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $53,696,000 after buying an additional 195,276 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming purchased a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the 1st quarter worth $97,000. Finally, Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC grew its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 0.7% during the first quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 715,827 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $21,324,000 after buying an additional 5,000 shares during the period. 57.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Citigroup lowered their target price on 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. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $41.67.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Performance

NYSE BIP traded down $0.12 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $33.40. The stock had a trading volume of 264,406 shares, compared to its average volume of 542,281. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 52-week low of $25.72 and a 52-week high of $36.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market cap of $15.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 835.08 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $30.53 and a 200 day moving average of $31.57.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP - Get Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.01. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 1.17% and a net margin of 1.64%. The firm had revenue of $5.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.15%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners's payout ratio 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.