Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 246,172 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 1.6% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 15,608,720 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 246,172 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $1,017,847,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BRO. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the fourth quarter worth about $516,837,000. Capital International Investors purchased a new position in Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter worth approximately $371,654,000. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 132.8% in the 4th quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 4,538,584 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $361,725,000 after purchasing an additional 2,589,048 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in Brown & Brown by 53.0% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,929,461 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $313,178,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361,934 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Brown & Brown by 1,679.0% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,204,318 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $112,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,136,623 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. bought 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $57.10 per share, with a total value of $114,200.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 47,621 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,719,159.10. This trade represents a 4.38% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 13.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 2.3%

Shares of BRO opened at $69.25 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.27, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.60. 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 1-year low of $53.81 and a 1-year high of $108.23. The company has a 50-day moving average of $60.23 and a 200 day moving average of $67.44.

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

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 11th were issued a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 11th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $73.00 price objective (up from $65.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Friday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $78.62.

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.