Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP.UN.TO)

(A Top Pick April 20/16. Up 22.07%.) They have done a good job. Part of the thesis is that they are going to be very opportunistic in finding places around the world to invest money in. Has a lot of respect for management.

A lot of utility-like companies are expensive, which is the knock against it. Trading at 24X EBITDA. Has a pretty levered balance sheet. Brookfield entities typically grow through acquisition and have lots of vehicles to do that. Dividend yield of 4.9%. Too expensive for him.

(Market Call Minute.) This is a fantastic collection of assets. It has a weird payout if you own outside of an RSP. Prefers and owns Brookfield Asset Management (BAM-N).

Sold half his position recently. A good company. He is a bit hesitant on their allocation of projects. They had a big allocation towards Brazil, and doesn’t see that economy performing well. Pays a good dividend in US$s.

Great company. They are deriving growth all over the planet. They will deploy capital in places where things are bad and capital is fleeing. That is how they get assets at a discount to fair value, and how they generate growth. The assets they buy often come with long-term contracts providing stable and growing cash flows. Also, have organic growth investment opportunities. Currently they are interested in Brazil, where the economy is pretty bad. 5.2% dividend yield.

It has a 13% growth rate. If they buy the Australian asset, he sees it as being 8% accretive. He thinks the dividend will continue to grow.

The name is synonymous with high quality. It makes sense in an overall portfolio. He has found better places to find growth. He targeted other yield plays such as ENB-T. He would be a buyer otherwise. The yield is safe.

This as a very opportunistic capital allocator. Instead of thinking of the actual assets, it is important to think of the people behind the assets. The management team is very good and rock solid, going around the world finding the best place to make money. They find areas of distress. Trading at a reasonable multiple of FFO, and more importantly they can take significant amounts of liquidity and deploy it into distressed parts of the market. Today one of them is the US energy sector and Brazil. Dividend yield of 5.9%.

Likes the name and you are getting an attractive dividend. Very well diversified. They own everything from toll roads to terminals. Almost exactly the kind of name you want to own in a low interest rate environment, when you are seeing money flow into defensive sectors. Very defensive name. Dividend yield of 4.6%.

Owns this in his income portfolio, but not in his growth portfolio. This stock has not broken its long-term trend line. In the near term it probably has some support at around current levels. Feels the dividend is sustainable and is solid. If you are an income, long-term investor, you could probably own this and is probably an OK time to buy it right now. It is probably going to move sideways for the time being.

(His top picks are dividend growers.) One of the publicly traded spinoffs of Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.A-T). This is a good way for retail investors to get exposure to infrastructure assets. Dividend yield of 5.73%.

As long as we are not in a waterfall, this is a good name. He is seeing 13% from funds operation growth over the next couple of years, from a pending Australian acquisition, growth in Brazil and toll roads in India. One of the problems is that it reports in US$ and only about 25% of their business is in the US, but 75% of their FFO (funds from operations) is hedged over the next 18-25 months to the US$. Has a good dividend which is growing. The kind of a name he would be nibbling on when he feels that the macro is a little more settled.

He wouldn’t be a buyer, because he doesn’t buy stocks over $10. However, he can see why people would buy it. It is a good company. Debt load is high which he doesn’t like. Infrastructure right now is very hot and the government is going to put a lot of money into it. A well-managed company.

Infrastructure is an important part of the portfolio, but don’t bet the farm on it. It is sensitive to interest rates. Take a partial position and wait for a pullback.

A good, long term hold for an income investor that is also looking for growth. This company is looking to buy long life assets with a very long time horizon.