Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Receives $98.67 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nineteen brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fourteen have issued a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $98.6667.

BRO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $97.00 price target (down from $135.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $84.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $83.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 8th.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC boosted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 423.1% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 272 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 298.5% during the 2nd quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 267 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Motco acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter worth $40,000. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of BRO opened at $79.19 on Monday. Brown & Brown has a one year low of $76.17 and a one year high of $125.68. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $79.88 and its 200-day moving average is $88.31. 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 has a market capitalization of $27.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.81.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 18.23% and a return on equity of 13.64%. Brown & Brown’s revenue was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.91 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

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