Capital International Sarl Increases Stock Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Capital International Sarl lifted its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 202.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,270 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,240 shares during the quarter. Capital International Sarl’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $2,276,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 16.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,625,322 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,949,779,000 after buying an additional 5,124,203 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the 2nd quarter valued at $433,740,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,416,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,445,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,821,229 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners bought a new position in Brown & Brown during the second quarter valued at approximately $171,163,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,460,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,381,531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,139 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BRO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Bank of America reduced their target price on Brown & Brown from $94.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Brown & Brown from $88.00 to $81.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $91.00 price target for the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $81.00 target price (down from $90.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.43.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 3.5%

NYSE:BRO opened at $68.57 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $74.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $82.16. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.68 and a twelve month high of $125.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.79.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.84% and a return on equity of 12.93%. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.86 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 35.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 4th were given a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is currently 20.63%.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc (NYSE: BRO) is a professional insurance brokerage and risk advisory firm that provides a broad range of property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, and specialty insurance products. The company works with commercial, public sector and individual clients to design and place insurance programs, manage claims and loss control, and deliver risk management consulting. Its services also include wholesale brokerage, program administration and other specialty distribution solutions that connect carriers and intermediaries to niche markets.

Brown & Brown operates through a decentralized model of operating units and subsidiaries, enabling local client service with the scale to access national and specialty markets.