Brookfield Business Partners (NYSE:BBU) Announces Earnings Results

Brookfield Business Partners (NYSE:BBU) announced its earnings results on Friday. The business services provider reported ($0.48) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.38 by ($1.86), Zacks reports. Brookfield Business Partners had a negative return on equity of 5.59% and a negative net margin of 3.02%.The business had revenue of $7 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion.

Here are the key takeaways from Brookfield Business Partners’ conference call:

• Brookfield generated more than $2 billion of proceeds from capital recycling, repaid roughly $1 billion of corporate borrowings, invested $700 million in four acquisitions, and repurchased about $235 million of stock as part of a $250 million buyback program.
• Management is on track to complete a conversion to a single newly listed corporation, which they expect will improve trading liquidity and roughly double index-driven demand for the shares pending final regulatory approval.
• Operational value creation is driving performance at core assets—Clarios has grown underlying EBITDA ~40% (~$700M) since acquisition with a multi?year growth path, and Nielsen has realized about $800M of cost savings and materially improved margins.
• Reported full?year Adjusted EBITDA was $2.4 billion (down from $2.6B) but on a comparable basis Adjusted EBITDA rose to $2.1B from $2.0B, and the company finished the year with approximately $2.6 billion of pro forma corporate liquidity and strong access to financing.
• Headwinds persist in parts of the portfolio—European activity remains soft, infrastructure segment EBITDA declined due to disposals, dealer software modernization costs will pressure results through 2026, and Scientific Games received a credit?rating downgrade despite management’s view that growth will help delever.

Brookfield Business Partners Trading Up 1.2%

BBU opened at $35.25 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.60. Brookfield Business Partners has a fifty-two week low of $18.63 and a fifty-two week high of $37.38. The company has a market cap of $3.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.58 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.84, a current ratio of 1.71 and a quick ratio of 1.41.

Brookfield Business Partners Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 28th were given a dividend of $0.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 28th. This represents a $0.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Brookfield Business Partners’s payout ratio is currently -13.89%.

Institutional Trading of Brookfield Business Partners

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in shares of Brookfield Business Partners by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 553,148 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $18,140,000 after purchasing an additional 69,657 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Brookfield Business Partners by 636.4% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 36,027 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $934,000 after buying an additional 31,135 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Brookfield Business Partners by 30,100.0% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,208 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 1,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Brookfield Business Partners by 0.6% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 130,620 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,285,000 after buying an additional 726 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BBU has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Brookfield Business Partners in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Brookfield Business Partners in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Zacks Research raised shares of Brookfield Business Partners from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, National Bankshares boosted their price objective on shares of Brookfield Business Partners from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.00.

Brookfield Business Partners Company Profile

Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (NYSE: BBU) is a publicly traded partnership sponsored by Brookfield Asset Management. The company focuses on acquiring and operating high-quality businesses across a range of industrial and service-oriented sectors. Through a partnership structure, Brookfield Business Partners seeks to provide investors with returns generated from stable, cash-flowing enterprises that benefit from Brookfield Asset Management’s global scale and operational expertise.

The company’s investment strategy centers on businesses within the industrial services, manufacturing, transportation, and business services segments.