Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO Holdings Lowered by Parnassus Investments LLC

Parnassus Investments LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 9.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,204,729 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 630,126 shares during the quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC owned about 1.82% of Brown & Brown worth $494,517,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BRO. Triad Investment Management acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,314,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,330,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,501,264,000 after purchasing an additional 1,705,570 shares in the last quarter. PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,226,000. Vest Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 552,994 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $44,074,000 after purchasing an additional 19,503 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 81.1% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,479,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,639,392,000 after purchasing an additional 7,827,992 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Brown & Brown

In other news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. bought 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $57.10 per share, with a total value of $114,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 47,621 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,719,159.10. The trade was a 4.38% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 13.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on BRO shares. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $80.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $76.00 to $72.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $78.44.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Brown & Brown stock opened at $59.94 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.92. The company has a market cap of $20.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.64. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $53.81 and a fifty-two week high of $111.10.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.94% and a return on equity of 12.94%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 11th were given a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.22%.

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.