Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target Raised to $118.00

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its price target raised by Royal Bank of Canada from $113.00 to $118.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

BRO has been the subject of several other reports. Argus started coverage on Brown & Brown in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $120.00 target price for the company. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays assumed coverage on Brown & Brown in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $108.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $106.50.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of BRO opened at $104.17 on Wednesday. Brown & Brown has a 12-month low of $69.13 and a 12-month high of $107.67. The business’s fifty day moving average is $104.16 and its 200 day moving average is $95.73. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market cap of $29.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.83.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 17.12% and a net margin of 22.65%. Brown & Brown’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown will post 3.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 6th. This is a boost from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 14.17%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.51, for a total transaction of $14,071,226.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.51, for a total value of $14,071,226.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO R. Andrew Watts sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total value of $250,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,445 shares in the company, valued at $8,872,802.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Crewe Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 330.4% during the second quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 297 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 298.5% during the third quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 267 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Brown & Brown during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Brown & Brown by 142.3% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 65.7% in the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 532 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

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.