Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.43

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 31st,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.43 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This is a positive change from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has increased its dividend by an average of 6.0% annually over the last three years. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a payout ratio of 121.8% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to earn $3.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.62 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

BIP traded down $0.79 on Friday, hitting $32.78. 268,717 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 355,550. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 12 month low of $24.84 and a 12 month high of $36.50. The business has a 50-day moving average of $32.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -86.26 and a beta of 1.07.

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 0.02% and a net margin of 0.03%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on BIP shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research note on Friday. Raymond James upped their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com downgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, TD Securities increased their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $42.20.

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.