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 drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,600,000 shares, a drop of 24.5% from the February 28th total of 2,120,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 733,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.2 days. Currently, 0.6% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CCLA Investment Management increased its stake in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,627,972 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $59,838,000 after acquiring an additional 49,553 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 23.8% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 8,472,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $192,605,000 after buying an additional 1,628,524 shares during the last quarter. Abel Hall LLC purchased a new position in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners during the 4th quarter valued at about $456,000. NINE MASTS CAPITAL Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 240.0% in the 4th quarter. NINE MASTS CAPITAL Ltd now owns 137,573 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,135,000 after buying an additional 97,105 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 4.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,605,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $214,328,000 after buying an additional 330,648 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.16% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Scotiabank upped their target price on Brookfield Renewable Partners from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $31.00 price target on shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, CIBC dropped their price objective on shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “outperformer” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brookfield Renewable Partners currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.50.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:BEP opened at $22.30 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.35 billion, a price-to-earnings 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. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $22.32 and a 200 day moving average of $24.23.

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

Brookfield Renewable Partners Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.373 per share. This represents a $1.49 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This is an increase from Brookfield Renewable Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Brookfield Renewable Partners’s payout ratio is currently -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.