Analysts Set Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Target Price at $89.33

Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nineteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $88.80.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on BRO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Brown & Brown in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $91.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Brown & Brown in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $76.00 price target for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Brown & Brown from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $80.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Monday, December 29th.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of BRO stock opened at $66.53 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $69.16 and a 200 day moving average of $78.41. Brown & Brown has a 52 week low of $63.29 and a 52 week high of $121.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.79, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 17.84%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Brown & Brown will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Brown & Brown by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,420,814 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $133,258,000 after buying an additional 51,959 shares in the last quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 69.7% during the 3rd quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,385,214 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $129,919,000 after purchasing an additional 569,037 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,330,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,501,264,000 after purchasing an additional 1,705,570 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,166,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $461,925,000 after purchasing an additional 46,235 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 43.3% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 48,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,558,000 after purchasing an additional 14,678 shares during the period. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.