Rathbones Group PLC Purchases New Shares in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP)

Rathbones Group PLC acquired a new position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 24,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $775,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 26,675,618 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $848,018,000 after acquiring an additional 2,866,195 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 24.6% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 4,003,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $140,273,000 after purchasing an additional 790,078 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 52.1% in the 4th quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,745,974 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,477,000 after purchasing an additional 598,290 shares during the period. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. grew its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 829,187 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,337,000 after purchasing an additional 39,565 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC increased its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 710,827 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $22,597,000 after purchasing an additional 23,374 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James upped their target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. TD Securities boosted their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $42.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners stock opened at $27.09 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.08. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 52 week low of $24.84 and a 52 week high of $36.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 677.47 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $30.70 and a 200-day moving average of $32.63.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 1.17% and a net margin of 1.64%. On average, sell-side analysts expect 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.35%. This is a positive change from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4,300.00%.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Profile

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.