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

Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $87.30.

BRO has been the topic of several recent research reports. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America lowered shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. 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 note on Monday, January 8th.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:BRO opened at $83.52 on Friday. Brown & Brown has a 12 month low of $61.71 and a 12 month high of $87.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $84.18 and its 200 day moving average is $77.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.82 billion, a PE ratio of 25.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.79.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 21.09%. The business’s revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Brown & Brown will post 3.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 16.00%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BRO. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Park Place Capital Corp boosted its position in Brown & Brown by 166.5% during the fourth quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 509 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the period. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the first quarter valued at about $36,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 174.0% in the fourth quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 348 shares during the period. Finally, First PREMIER Bank bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter valued at about $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

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.