Russell Investments Group Ltd. Raises Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 81.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 280,955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 126,113 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $26,344,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 16.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,625,322 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,949,779,000 after purchasing an additional 5,124,203 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Brown & Brown in the second quarter valued at about $433,740,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Brown & Brown by 13.4% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,416,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,445,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,821,229 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the 2nd quarter valued at about $171,163,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,460,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,381,531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,139 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

NYSE BRO opened at $67.63 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $23.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $73.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $81.97. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.68 and a twelve month high of $125.68.

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

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 4th were issued a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on BRO shares. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $81.00 price objective (down from $90.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.29.

About Brown & Brown

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.