Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) to Issue $0.41 Quarterly Dividend

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a dividend of 0.405 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.8% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 17 consecutive years. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a payout ratio of 167.0% 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 $3.40 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 47.6%.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE BIP traded up $0.34 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $35.01. The company had a trading volume of 15,123 shares, compared to its average volume of 431,389. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.81. The company has a market capitalization of $16.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -204.12 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $33.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.10. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 12-month low of $24.84 and a 12-month high of $36.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by ($0.98). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 0.51% and a net margin of 0.82%. The company had revenue of $5.27 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on BIP. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.40.

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.