Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Plans $0.13 Quarterly Dividend

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

Brown & Brown has raised its dividend payment by an average of 11.0% per year 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% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 Price Performance

BRO traded down $0.99 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $81.94. 162,117 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,324,915. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a market capitalization of $23.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.23, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.78. Brown & Brown has a 52-week low of $60.00 and a 52-week high of $87.99. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 21.09% and a return on equity of 16.82%. The company’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Brown & Brown

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 16.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BRO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $87.00.

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.