The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Sells 1,037,927 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company reduced its position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 29.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,451,378 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,037,927 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned about 0.86% of Brown & Brown worth $253,963,000 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 BRO. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the second quarter worth about $1,512,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 12.4% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 251,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,855,000 after buying an additional 27,879 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Brown & Brown by 162.3% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 488,483 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,675,000 after acquiring an additional 302,240 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 27.3% during the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 31,105 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after purchasing an additional 6,675 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Brown & Brown by 8.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,553,396 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $138,899,000 after purchasing an additional 114,688 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America upped their price target on Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $113.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $112.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $107.42.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

BRO opened at $111.75 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $31.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.45, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $106.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $99.01. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $69.13 and a twelve month high of $114.08.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 22.65% and a return on equity of 17.12%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.74 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. This is an increase from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.35%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.51, for a total transaction of $14,071,226.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 17.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.