Jefferies Financial Group Trims Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Target Price to $34.00

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) had its price target lowered by Jefferies Financial Group from $37.00 to $34.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

BIP has been the topic of several other research reports. National Bank Financial downgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. National Bankshares cut Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and set a $32.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, TD Securities lowered their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $38.60.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Performance

BIP opened at $27.17 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $12.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 194.09 and a beta of 0.95. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 1-year low of $21.03 and a 1-year high of $37.32.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by ($0.99). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 1.34% and a return on equity of 0.79%. The firm had revenue of $4.97 billion for the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.405 dividend. This is an increase from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio is currently 1,157.23%.

Institutional Trading of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 22.1% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,951,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $628,265,000 after purchasing an additional 3,613,608 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 413.9% during the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 4,278,411 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $125,557,000 after buying an additional 3,445,832 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 19,209,097 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $604,894,000 after acquiring an additional 1,678,140 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 28.2% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 7,118,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $224,468,000 after acquiring an additional 1,565,246 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 17,876,978 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $525,947,000 after acquiring an additional 1,362,482 shares in the last quarter. 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.