Sentry Investment Management LLC Cuts Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Sentry Investment Management LLC lowered its position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 9.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,235 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 133 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $88,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Group One Trading L.P. purchased a new position in Brown & Brown in the first quarter valued at $201,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 31,373 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,267,000 after acquiring an additional 1,950 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter valued at about $354,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 37.1% in the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 5,550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $404,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 608.0% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 43,409 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,135,000 after acquiring an additional 37,278 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Brown & Brown

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BRO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.80.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of BRO opened at $81.12 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $59.91 and a fifty-two week high of $87.99. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $76.63. The company has a market capitalization of $23.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.78.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 15.46% and a net margin of 20.44%. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Company Profile

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.