Gotham Asset Management LLC Buys 248,110 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Gotham Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 496,186 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 248,110 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC owned about 0.15% of Brown & Brown worth $46,537,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BRO. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 81.1% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,479,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,639,392,000 after buying an additional 7,827,992 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 16.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 5,124,203 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $433,740,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Brown & Brown by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,416,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,445,888,000 after acquiring an additional 1,821,229 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners bought a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $171,163,000. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on BRO shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Brown & Brown from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Argus upgraded shares of Brown & Brown to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $81.00 target price (down from $90.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Brown & Brown has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.29.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 0.9%

BRO stock opened at $68.29 on Monday. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1-year low of $65.68 and a 1-year high of $125.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.66. The company has a market capitalization of $23.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.34, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.79. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.57.

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

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 4th were paid a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.63%.

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.