Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Receives $89.33 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the nineteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $85.2667.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on BRO shares. Mizuho upgraded Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $85.00 in a report on Friday, February 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Brown & Brown in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $76.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $80.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 38.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 33,444 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,132,000 after purchasing an additional 9,264 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 11,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,387,000 after purchasing an additional 547 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 15,196 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,685,000 after purchasing an additional 503 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1,824.7% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 53,103 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,888,000 after purchasing an additional 50,344 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,166,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $461,925,000 after purchasing an additional 46,235 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of BRO stock opened at $67.85 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.15. Brown & Brown has a one year low of $63.29 and a one year high of $121.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.10 billion, a PE ratio of 21.20, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.83. 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 (NYSE:BRO) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion for 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%.The firm’s revenue was up 35.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business 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. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 20.63%.

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.