Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Rating Lowered to "Sell" at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen has downgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a recently issued research note.
• Despite the downgrade, analysts have mixed views, with Royal Bank of Canada setting a target price of $40.00 and Jefferies issuing a "buy" rating with a $35.00 target price.
• Brookfield Infrastructure Partners reported a quarterly earnings miss at $0.81 per share, slightly below the consensus estimate of $0.82, with revenue of $5.43 billion, exceeding expectations.

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

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a report on Friday, August 29th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $35.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $40.00 target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $41.00.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Shares of BIP stock traded up $0.58 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $31.09. The stock had a trading volume of 530,960 shares, compared to its average volume of 506,499. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a one year low of $25.72 and a one year high of $36.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $31.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 621.94 and a beta of 1.10.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP - Get Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.82 by ($0.01). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 1.15% and a net margin of 1.54%.The firm had revenue of $5.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.95 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.77 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.45 EPS for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.5%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners's dividend payout ratio is currently 3,440.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BIP. North Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. SouthState Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the first quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Parallel Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the first quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 565.6% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,243 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 1,906 shares during the period. Finally, Pandora Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the first quarter valued at approximately $80,000. Institutional investors own 57.92% of the company's stock.

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.