Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

StockNews.com lowered shares of Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Wednesday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on BRO. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Brown & Brown from a buy rating to a hold rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $78.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $87.30.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of Brown & Brown stock traded up $0.80 on Wednesday, hitting $85.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 851,165 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,330,636. Brown & Brown has a 1 year low of $61.71 and a 1 year high of $87.99. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $84.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $77.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97. The company has a market capitalization of $24.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.79.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.26 billion during 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%. Brown & Brown’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown will post 3.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

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 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.00%.

Insider Activity at Brown & Brown

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 16.43% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Brown & Brown by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,152,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,001,903,000 after acquiring an additional 266,441 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Brown & Brown by 3.2% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,718,155 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,113,347,000 after acquiring an additional 392,250 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Brown & Brown by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 5,236,392 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $372,360,000 after acquiring an additional 29,514 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth $217,663,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Brown & Brown by 6.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,285,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $159,620,000 after acquiring an additional 130,647 shares in the last quarter. 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.