Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 616,373 Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP)

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP - Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN by 2.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 23,809,423 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 616,373 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 5.13% of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners worth $834,282,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.9% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,365,956 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,198,095,000 after purchasing an additional 3,141,038 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 4.4% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,147,654 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $168,680,000 after buying an additional 257,587 shares in the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management grew its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 35.0% during the second quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 4,341,905 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $119,180,000 after buying an additional 1,125,964 shares during the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. increased its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 29.6% during the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 4,202,842 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $115,326,000 after acquiring an additional 960,120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. raised its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 26.1% in the 2nd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 3,204,547 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $88,027,000 after acquiring an additional 663,726 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.92% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BIP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price 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. StockNews.com upgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Sunday, September 15th. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $40.20.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Price Performance

Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners stock traded down $0.46 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $34.21. The company's stock had a trading volume of 422,407 shares, compared to its average volume of 433,085. The company has a market cap of $15.87 billion, a PE ratio of -201.29 and a beta of 1.06. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $33.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.10. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 12-month low of $24.84 and a 12-month high of $36.50.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP - Get Free Report) TSE: BIP.UN last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported ($0.18) 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 business had revenue of $5.27 billion during the quarter. Analysts expect that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.74%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners's payout ratio is -952.94%.

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.