Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $85.70.

BRO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Bank of America lowered Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th.

Brown & Brown Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of BRO opened at $81.03 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $84.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.78. Brown & Brown has a 1-year low of $58.71 and a 1-year high of $87.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 15.46% and a net margin of 20.44%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. Analysts expect that Brown & Brown will post 3.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is 16.99%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 16.43% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BRO. Group One Trading L.P. acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter worth approximately $201,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 31,373 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,267,000 after purchasing an additional 1,950 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. bought a new position in Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter worth approximately $354,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in Brown & Brown by 37.1% in the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 5,550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after buying an additional 1,502 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in Brown & Brown by 608.0% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 43,409 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,135,000 after buying an additional 37,278 shares during the period. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Brown & Brown Company Profile

Brown & Brown, Inc markets and sells insurance products and services in the United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services. The Retail segment provides property and casualty, employee benefits insurance products, personal insurance products, specialties insurance products, risk management strategies, loss control survey and analysis, consultancy, and claims processing services.