Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Lifted to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Sunday.

Separately, Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.56.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BIP opened at $33.52 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $15.55 billion, a PE ratio of 108.13 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 1-year low of $21.03 and a 1-year high of $33.83. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $31.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.62.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.80). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 0.51% and a net margin of 0.82%. The company had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.91 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BIP. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,681,918 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $211,259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,112,217 shares in the last quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,330,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,919,000. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 385,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,137,000 after purchasing an additional 38,216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forge First Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 92.5% in the 1st quarter. Forge First Asset Management Inc. now owns 201,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,286,000 after purchasing an additional 96,890 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Company 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.