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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This is a boost from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.0% annually over the last three years. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a payout ratio of 121.8% indicating that 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 Stock Down 2.4 %

BIP stock traded down $0.79 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $32.78. 268,717 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 355,550. The company has a market capitalization of $15.21 billion, a PE ratio of -86.26 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a twelve month low of $24.84 and a twelve month high of $36.50. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.93.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 0.03% and a return on equity of 0.02%. On average, research analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. TD Securities boosted their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target 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.