New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 349,597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 21,115 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $24,860,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BRO. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 1,861.7% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 810,359 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $56,595,000 after acquiring an additional 769,051 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 81.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,021,668 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $71,353,000 after acquiring an additional 460,068 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 1,831.8% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 397,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,780,000 after acquiring an additional 377,173 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 15.9% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,715,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $119,821,000 after acquiring an additional 235,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 145.6% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 396,141 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,666,000 after acquiring an additional 234,853 shares during the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Brown & Brown Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of BRO opened at $81.45 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.78. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a one year low of $61.71 and a one year high of $87.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.97. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $84.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.06.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 21.09%. Brown & Brown’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.00%.

Insider Activity at Brown & Brown

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 17.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on BRO. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Bank of America downgraded Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. UBS Group upped their target price on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $87.10.

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.