Bank of Nova Scotia Sells 749,733 Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP)

Bank of Nova Scotia lowered its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP - Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN by 17.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 3,596,017 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 749,733 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia owned approximately 0.77% of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners worth $114,256,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 12.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,866,195 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 24.6% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 4,003,231 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $140,273,000 after purchasing an additional 790,078 shares during the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,745,974 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $55,477,000 after purchasing an additional 598,290 shares during the period. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 5.0% in the fourth 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 period. Finally, Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC lifted its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 710,827 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $22,597,000 after buying an additional 23,374 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.92% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Shares of BIP traded up $0.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $28.26. 570,124 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 434,861. The company has a market cap of $13.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 706.63 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $30.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.48. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 1 year low of $24.84 and a 1 year high of $36.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP - Get Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.58. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 1.17% and a net margin of 1.64%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.09%. This is a boost from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners's previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4,300.00%.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Company 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.