Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE:BEP) Short Interest Down 24.5% in March

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE:BEP) (TSE:BEP) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,600,000 shares, a decrease of 24.5% from the February 28th total of 2,120,000 shares. Currently, 0.6% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 733,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brookfield Renewable Partners

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 609.2% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 11,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $333,000 after acquiring an additional 10,143 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its position in Brookfield Renewable Partners by 1.6% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 46,845 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,321,000 after acquiring an additional 749 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 1.3% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 31,214 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $880,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in Brookfield Renewable Partners by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,040,674 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,326,000 after purchasing an additional 25,916 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 40.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $199,000 after buying an additional 2,036 shares during the period. 63.16% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on BEP shares. CIBC dropped their target price on Brookfield Renewable Partners from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “outperformer” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $31.00 price target on shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Brookfield Renewable Partners from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.50.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of BEP stock opened at $22.30 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.25. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.35 billion, a PE ratio of -25.05 and a beta of 1.02. Brookfield Renewable Partners has a 52-week low of $19.92 and a 52-week high of $29.56.

Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP) (TSE:BEP) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The utilities provider reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by $0.16. Brookfield Renewable Partners had a negative net margin of 0.15% and a negative return on equity of 0.03%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.01 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Brookfield Renewable Partners will post -1.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a $0.373 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This is a positive change from Brookfield Renewable Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.49 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.69%. Brookfield Renewable Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -167.42%.

About Brookfield Renewable Partners

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. owns a portfolio of renewable power generating facilities primarily in North America, Colombia, and Brazil. The company generates electricity through hydroelectric, wind, solar, distributed generation, and pumped storage, as well as renewable natural gas, carbon capture and storage, recycling, cogeneration biomass, nuclear services, and power transformation.