Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Raises Dividend to $0.43 Per Share

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 paid 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 of this dividend 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 payment by an average of 6.0% per year over the last three years. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a dividend 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. 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 Stock Down 2.4 %

NYSE BIP traded down $0.79 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $32.78. 268,717 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 355,550. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.77. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a one year low of $24.84 and a one year high of $36.50. The company’s 50-day moving average is $32.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.93. The company 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 0.02% and a net margin of 0.03%. On average, analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on BIP shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a report on Friday. StockNews.com lowered Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Raymond James raised their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, TD Securities increased their price objective 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 given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.20.

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.