Barclays Cuts Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target to $80.00

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its target price trimmed by Barclays from $82.00 to $80.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on BRO. Mizuho upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $84.00 to $85.00 in a report on Friday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $91.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Brown & Brown from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Argus upgraded Brown & Brown to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.29.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

NYSE BRO opened at $68.29 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $73.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $81.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Brown & Brown has a twelve month low of $65.68 and a twelve month high of $125.68. The company has a market capitalization of $23.25 billion, a PE ratio of 21.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.79.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 17.84%.The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.86 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 35.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Brown & Brown will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 4th were given a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 20.63%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 81.1% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,479,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,639,392,000 after acquiring an additional 7,827,992 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at $516,837,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Brown & Brown by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,625,322 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,949,779,000 after purchasing an additional 5,124,203 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors purchased a new position in Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter valued at about $371,654,000. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. raised its position in Brown & Brown by 132.8% in the fourth quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 4,538,584 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $361,725,000 after purchasing an additional 2,589,048 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Company Profile

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.