First Foundation Advisors Grows Position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP)

First Foundation Advisors grew its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 84,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,400 shares during the quarter. First Foundation Advisors’ holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners were worth $2,688,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 26,675,618 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $848,018,000 after buying an additional 2,866,195 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 6,432,381 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $202,492,000 after purchasing an additional 171,748 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 24.6% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 4,003,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $140,273,000 after acquiring an additional 790,078 shares in the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 52.1% in the 4th quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,745,974 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,477,000 after acquiring an additional 598,290 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. boosted its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 829,187 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,337,000 after buying an additional 39,565 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Shares of BIP opened at $28.80 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $13.37 billion, a PE ratio of 720.18 and a beta of 1.04. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 1-year low of $24.84 and a 1-year high of $36.50. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $30.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 1.64% and a return on equity of 1.17%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. will post 3.45 EPS for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.97%. This is an increase from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s payout ratio is 4,300.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on BIP. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. TD Securities upped their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 1st. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $42.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners 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.