Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp Buys 65,139 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 551,609 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 65,139 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $51,735,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BRO. Access Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Brown & Brown during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,109,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.1% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,166,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $461,925,000 after acquiring an additional 46,235 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 30.6% during the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 760,893 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $84,360,000 after purchasing an additional 178,082 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter worth $1,635,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter worth $6,798,000. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BRO has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 17th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on Brown & Brown in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $91.00 price target for the company. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $98.67.

Brown & Brown Stock Up 0.7%

Brown & Brown stock opened at $79.19 on Friday. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $76.17 and a fifty-two week high of $125.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $88.44. The stock has a market cap of $27.04 billion, a PE ratio of 23.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.81.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.15. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 18.23% and a return on equity of 13.64%. The firm had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.91 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 4th will be paid a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is 19.76%.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc (NYSE: BRO) is a professional insurance brokerage and risk advisory firm that provides a broad range of property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, and specialty insurance products. The company works with commercial, public sector and individual clients to design and place insurance programs, manage claims and loss control, and deliver risk management consulting. Its services also include wholesale brokerage, program administration and other specialty distribution solutions that connect carriers and intermediaries to niche markets.

Brown & Brown operates through a decentralized model of operating units and subsidiaries, enabling local client service with the scale to access national and specialty markets.