Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Thursday morning.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America raised Brown & Brown from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and raised their target price for the stock from $91.00 to $101.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Truist Financial raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $104.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Brown & Brown from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Raymond James raised their price objective on Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $97.40.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of BRO stock opened at $100.32 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $28.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.82. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $93.42 and a 200-day moving average of $87.36. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Brown & Brown has a 1-year low of $66.73 and a 1-year high of $103.16.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.05. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 17.00% and a net margin of 21.95%. The business had revenue of $1.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 3.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.00%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO R. Andrew Watts sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total value of $250,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 88,445 shares in the company, valued at $8,872,802.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Julie Turpin sold 3,350 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction on Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.92, for a total transaction of $301,232.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,597 shares in the company, valued at $2,121,842.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO R. Andrew Watts sold 2,500 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total value of $250,800.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 88,445 shares in the company, valued at $8,872,802.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 0.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,355,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,482,223,000 after acquiring an additional 203,105 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 0.7% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,804,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,144,893,000 after acquiring an additional 86,824 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Brown & Brown during the fourth quarter worth $217,663,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 105.1% during the second quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 2,068,333 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $184,930,000 after acquiring an additional 1,059,711 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in Brown & Brown by 76.2% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,000,227 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $142,236,000 after buying an additional 865,082 shares during the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Brown & Brown

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.