If you’re looking for dividend paying stocks with exposure to overseas infrastructure, AND a high dividend yield, Bermuda-based Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, BIP, may be one of the best stocks to check out.

BIP has the highest dividend in the Utilities section of our High Dividend Stocks by Sector tables.  BIP owns electricity transmission systems, timberlands and social infrastructure in North and South America, the United Kingdom and Australia.

By closing a deal with Australian company, Babcock & Brown Infrastructure, BIP is about to make itself even more attractive by acquiring interests in a broad range of infrastructure projects in more key areas.  These new acquisitions include:  Natural gas pipelines in western Australia, a midwestern U.S. gas pipeline, port concessions in China, a coal terminal in Australia, and other gas and electricity distribution assets in the U.K., New Zealand and elsewhere.

BIP compares quite favorably to its peers in the Electric Utilities industry:

	Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	Electric Utility Industry Avgs.
Debt/Equity	Zero Debt	54.00%
Gross Margin	91.67%	33.48%
P/E	7.63	14.89
Price/Free cash/Share	3.08	18.46
ROA	8.50	2.96
ROI	81.46	3.40

BIP pays a $.265/share dividend quarterly, which is currently a 6.78% dividend yield.

There are also options available for BIP, for those interested in covered calls and covered puts, or cash-secured puts. A possible covered call trade would be to sell the June $17.50 strike, (BIPFW), which has a big bid/ask spread of $.60/$1.60.

Conversely, more skeptical investors might sell the June $15.00 put option, BIPRC, for a 10% yield, ($1.50 bid) , or possibly more, since the ask is at $2.50.

Disclosure: No positions yet.

Disclaimer: This article is written for informational purposes only.

Tags: best stocks, bip, call options, covered calls, covered puts, dividend paying stocks, dividend yield, high dividend stocks, highest dividend, options, put options

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 7:59 pm and is filed under Dividend Stocks, Option Trading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.