These 2 Top High-Yield Dividend Stocks Are Simplifying. Here’s What That Means for Dividend Investors.

Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP -0.15%) and Brookfield Renewable Corporation (BEPC -4.67%) announced their intention to simplify their corporate structure. Their infrastructure siblings, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP +1.21%) and Brookfield Infrastructure Corporation (BIPC -1.29%), also announced the same intention. The moves would create two publicly traded corporations: one focused on renewable energy (Brookfield Renewable Partners) and another on infrastructure (Brookfield Infrastructure Partners).

Here’s a look at what these corporate simplifications mean for dividend investors.

Image source: Getty Images.

The benefits of simplifying

Brookfield Corporation (BN -0.47%), the parent company of these entities, initially created the economically equivalent corporate twins (BEPC and BIPC) to provide investors with greater access to its publicly traded operating companies. Some investors don’t like holding partnerships because they issue Schedule K-1 Federal tax forms, which adds some tax complexity. Additionally, partnerships aren’t eligible for investment in most retirement accounts and inclusion in most indexes. While the creation of these corporate entities helped broaden their investment appeal, it didn’t solve all the problems.

Today’s Change

(-4.67%) $-1.60

Current Price

$32.58

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$6.2BMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.

Day’s Range

$32.25 – $34.43

52wk Range

$32.25 – $45.18

Volume

145.9K

Avg Vol

1.5M

Gross Margin

25.25%

Dividend Yield

4.48%

By simplifying their corporate structures into publicly traded corporations, Brookfield expects to reap several benefits, including:

• Increased trading liquidity through a single listed entity.
• Increased demand from indexes and the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track them.
• Simplified investor analysis.
• Eliminating partnership tax reporting for BEP and BIP unitholders.

If security holders approve the moves, all investors will receive newly issued shares of the new corporation (BEP for current Brookfield Renewable investors and BIP for existing Brookfield Infrastructure holders). Investors will see no change to their current dividend levels (preserving their roughly 4.5% yields). Meanwhile, both companies will remain in a strong position to continue growing their dividends (5% to 9% annual growth targets) and long-term shareholder value.

Brookfield Infrastructure

Today’s Change

(-1.29%) $-0.53

Current Price

$40.46

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$5.6BMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.

Day’s Range

$40.35 – $41.18

52wk Range

$34.18 – $51.72

Volume

1.3M

Avg Vol

1.1M

Gross Margin

63.46%

Dividend Yield

4.32%

Following a successful blueprint

The simplification announcements likely didn’t come as a surprise to investors who follow Brookfield Corporation or any of its operating companies. The leading global investment firm is currently undergoing its own simplification by recombining with its insurance business (Brookfield Wealth Solutions). It announced plans to streamline its corporate structure earlier this year, which shareholders recently approved. It expects to close the simplification by year-end. Simplifying will enhance its capital efficiency and flexibility and better support its expansion.

That move followed the successful conversion of Brookfield Business Partners and Brookfield Business Corporation into a single listed corporate entity. In the company’s first-quarter letter to shareholders, CEO Bruce Flatt wrote, “The dominance of index investing, strong shareholder support, and a positive market response have reinforced our view that simpler structures with larger market capitalizations are now the most effective way to position these businesses.” That led Brookfield to evaluate similar simplification plans of its listed infrastructure and renewable energy entities, which it’s now progressing.

Making it simpler for dividend investors

Brookfield Corporation is simplifying the structures of its renewable energy and infrastructure operating companies. That will eliminate the burdensome tax reporting for dividend investors who currently hold units of either partnership. Meanwhile, it will provide income-seekers with a simple investment option focused on either infrastructure or renewable energy. That will benefit investors over the long run as it will become much easier to invest in these top high-yield dividend stocks, which will be in an even stronger position to grow their payouts and shareholder value going forward.