Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.13 on May 15th

Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 22nd, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.13 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd.

Brown & Brown has increased its dividend by an average of 11.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 30 years. Brown & Brown has a payout ratio of 13.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Brown & Brown to earn $3.86 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 13.5%.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BRO traded down $0.84 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $82.09. 221,360 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,325,693. Brown & Brown has a 1-year low of $60.00 and a 1-year high of $87.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.16, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.78. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $84.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $76.99.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.07. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.82% and a net margin of 21.09%. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Brown & Brown will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 16.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. StockNews.com raised Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, March 17th. Citigroup upped their price target on Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.10.

About Brown & Brown

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.