Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Trims Stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lowered its position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 51.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,781 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 19,067 shares during the quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $1,427,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,705,570 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 81.1% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,479,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,639,392,000 after acquiring an additional 7,827,992 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $1,445,888,000 after acquiring an additional 1,821,229 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 5.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,120,826 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,230,602,000 after purchasing an additional 660,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 16.8% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,703,009 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $299,683,000 after purchasing an additional 389,578 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BRO shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of 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. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $81.00 target price (down from $90.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Brown & Brown from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $80.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.33.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of BRO opened at $65.91 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $22.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $78.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.66. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1 year low of $63.29 and a 1 year high of $125.68.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.84% and a return on equity of 12.93%. The business’s revenue was up 35.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

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

Brown & Brown Profile

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.