Barclays PLC Buys 371,980 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,466,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 371,980 shares during the period. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $255,537,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,512,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Brown & Brown by 162.3% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 488,483 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,675,000 after purchasing an additional 302,240 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in Brown & Brown by 27.3% in the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 31,105 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,781,000 after buying an additional 6,675 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $9,832,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,315,654 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $136,302,000 after buying an additional 17,934 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BRO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. StockNews.com downgraded Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Brown & Brown from $112.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $113.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $109.46.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 3.2 %

Brown & Brown stock opened at $105.67 on Tuesday. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $69.13 and a fifty-two week high of $114.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a current ratio of 1.73. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $108.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.76. The stock has a market cap of $30.22 billion, a PE ratio of 28.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.84.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.03. The company 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. This is a positive change from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.57%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.35%.

Brown & Brown 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.