FourThought Financial LLC Decreases Stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

FourThought Financial LLC reduced its holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO – Get Rating) by 34.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,301 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,277 shares during the period. FourThought Financial LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $260,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,048,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $668,201,000 after buying an additional 52,848 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Brown & Brown by 9.7% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,207,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $231,821,000 after purchasing an additional 284,786 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Brown & Brown by 658.3% during the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,975,944 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $173,617,000 after purchasing an additional 2,583,481 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in Brown & Brown by 3.9% during the third quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,595,652 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $156,985,000 after purchasing an additional 98,476 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Brown & Brown by 2.6% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,683,849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $121,692,000 after purchasing an additional 42,899 shares during the period. 69.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on BRO shares. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Wednesday, December 14th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $62.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $67.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $60.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.30.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 3.1 %

Shares of BRO stock opened at $55.11 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 1.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.35 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $57.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.91. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $52.82 and a fifty-two week high of $74.00.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.04. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 18.80% and a return on equity of 14.88%. The firm had revenue of $901.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $897.98 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.42 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 2.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 2nd. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lawrence L. Gellerstedt III purchased 3,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 10th. The stock was bought at an average price of $57.92 per share, for a total transaction of $196,928.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 16,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $943,169.28. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 16.67% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Brown & Brown Company Profile

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Brown & Brown, Inc is an insurance agency, wholesale brokerage, insurance program and service organization. It engages in the provision of insurance brokerage services and casualty insurance underwriting services. It operates through the following segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services.