Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $84.90.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America lowered shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th.

Insider Transactions at Brown & Brown

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total transaction of $12,406,005.08. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 16.43% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brown & Brown

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 187.2% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,491,448 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $540,728,000 after buying an additional 6,186,323 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $217,663,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 658.3% in the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,975,944 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $173,617,000 after buying an additional 2,583,481 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 401.0% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,468,253 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $83,646,000 after buying an additional 1,175,211 shares during the period. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. MA acquired a new position in Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $82,445,000. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

NYSE BRO opened at $85.48 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.78. The company’s fifty day moving average is $83.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.10. Brown & Brown has a 52-week low of $58.02 and a 52-week high of $87.99.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 20.44% and a return on equity of 15.46%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 3.29 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 16.99%.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc markets and sells insurance products and services in the United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services. The Retail segment provides property and casualty, employee benefits insurance products, personal insurance products, specialties insurance products, risk management strategies, loss control survey and analysis, consultancy, and claims processing services.