Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 2,866,195 Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) (TSE:BIP.UN) by 12.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,675,618 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,866,195 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 5.75% of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners worth $848,018,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 159.5% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 175,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,147,000 after buying an additional 107,821 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 197.9% during the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 71,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,521,000 after buying an additional 47,792 shares during the period. Addenda Capital Inc. boosted its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 129.5% during the 4th quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 680,481 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $21,632,000 after buying an additional 384,000 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 87.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 24,090 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $844,000 after purchasing an additional 11,217 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,550,270 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $89,362,000 after purchasing an additional 130,371 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 1st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, TD Securities raised their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $42.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BIP opened at $32.83 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $32.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.10. The firm has a market cap of $15.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 820.86 and a beta of 1.08. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 52 week low of $24.84 and a 52 week high of $36.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72.

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

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This is a boost from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.24%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4,051.01%.

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.