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 61,000 kilometers (km) of operational electricity transmission and distribution lines; 5,300 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 7.3 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 360,000 long-term contracted sub-metering services. This segment also offers heating and cooling solutions; gas distribution; water heaters; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioner rental, as well as other home services. Its Transport segment offers transportation, storage, and handling services for merchandise goods, commodities, and passengers through a network of approximately 22,000 km of track; 5,500 km of track network; 4,800 km of rail; 3,800 km of motorways; and 13 port terminals. The company's Midstream segment offers natural gas transmission, gathering and processing, and storage services through approximately 15,000 km of natural gas transmission pipelines; 600 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage; 17 natural gas processing plants; and 3,900 km of gas gathering pipelines, as well as one petrochemical processing complex. Its Data segment operates approximately 148,000 operational telecom towers; 8,000 multi-purpose towers and active rooftop sites; 10,000 km of fiber backbone; 1,600 cell sites and approximately 12,000 km of fiber optic cable; and 2,100 active telecom towers and 70 distributed antenna systems, as well as 50 data centers and 200 megawatts of critical load capacity. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several equities research analysts have weighed in on BIP shares. Raymond James set a $46.67 price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 5th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $43.33 to $46.67 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 12th. Credit Suisse Group upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $49.50 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $46.80.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance
BIP Stock traded up $0.56 during trading on Thursday, hitting $41.88. 255,212 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 368,602. The stock has a market cap of $19.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.88 and a beta of 0.76. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 1 year low of $35.81 and a 1 year high of $46.01. The firm's 50 day moving average is $39.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.51.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP - Get Rating) (TSE:BIP.UN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.63 by ($0.50). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 5.20% and a return on equity of 2.75%. The firm had revenue of $3.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 2.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Cuts Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 31st will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 208.70%.
