Brookfield (BIP) Hits 52-Week High On Planned Expansions

Share price of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP) , an electric and power company, scaled a new 52-week high of $41.33 on Jun 26, eventually closing a tad lower at $41.05. The stock has delivered a one-year return of about 54.1% compared with the Zacks categorized Utility - Electric Power industry’s gain of 3.3%.

In the past 52 weeks, Brookfield Infrastructure’s share price has ranged from a low of $27.98 to a high of $41.33. Average volume of shares traded in the last three months is approximately 326.67 thousand.

Factors behind the Performance

The company has been a steady performer, having delivered an average surprise of 0.79% in the trailing four quarters. The long-term earnings growth is presently pegged at 10%.

The company has gained from the solid performance of organic assets and systematically invested to further strengthen its organic operations. At the end of first quarter, the company had more than $2 billion of projects in backlog. Further, the company is looking forward to expansion via new organic projects.

Capital project include nearly 1.5 million smart meters installations utilizing around $400 million of capital and expanding the company’s UK regulated distribution business. To take advantage of Brazilian government concession to expand and operate toll roads, the company has decided to invest $215 million in next few years to expand as well as upgrade the road and continue to benefit from it.

During the month of April, Brookfield completed the acquisition of an interest in NTS, investing $1.3 billion. The company also announced an investment worth $200 million in a portfolio of over 40,000 towers from Reliance Telecom in India that is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2017.

As Brookfield Infrastructure owns and operates a diverse portfolio of high quality infrastructure assets that serve as sustainable and growing distributions over the long-term for unit holders, it is clear that it will continue to benefit from the continued organic and inorganic assets which in turn are driving the performance.

Stocks to Consider

Brookfield Infrastructure currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors can consider better-ranked stocks from the same industry like NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) , Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (TO:AQN) and CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) All the three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

NextEra Energy delivered a positive earnings surprise of 12.18% in first-quarter 2017. Its 2017 estimates have risen by 0.30% to $6.65 per share in the last 60 days.

Algonquin Power & Utilities pulled off a positive earnings surprise of 11.76% in first-quarter 2017. Its 2017 estimates have risen by 2.08% to 49 cents per share in the last 90 days.

CenterPoint Energy delivered a positive earnings surprise of 2.78% in first-quarter 2017. Its second quarter 2017 estimates have risen by 5.26% to 20 cents per share in the last 90 days.

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