Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) Increases Dividend to $0.43 Per Share

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP - Get Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 5.26%. 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.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has increased its dividend by an average of 6.0% per year over the last three years. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a dividend 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 $3.80 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 42.6%.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Performance

Shares of BIP traded up $0.67 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $32.70. 699,841 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 387,706. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 1 year low of $24.84 and a 1 year high of $36.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.08. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $32.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.00. The stock has a market cap of $15.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 817.75 and a beta of 1.08.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP - Get Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BIP has been the topic of several research reports. Raymond James raised their target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research report on Friday. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $42.80.

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.