Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA Sells 17,725 Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP)

Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA lowered its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) by 17.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 86,598 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 17,725 shares during the period. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA’s holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners were worth $2,753,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BIP. Creative Planning lifted its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 9.9% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 67,056 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 6,024 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 16.0% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 37,032 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,016,000 after purchasing an additional 5,108 shares in the last quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. acquired a new position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the third quarter valued at approximately $596,000. Inspire Investing LLC acquired a new position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the third quarter valued at approximately $894,000. Finally, M. Kraus & Co bought a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the third quarter worth $223,000. 57.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research note on Friday. TD Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. StockNews.com raised shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.80.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BIP opened at $32.21 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $32.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.97. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 1-year low of $24.84 and a 1-year high of $36.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 806.70 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 1.64% and a return on equity of 1.17%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.34%. This is a positive change from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4,051.01%.

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.