National Pension Service Boosts Stock Holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

National Pension Service increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 43.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 503,604 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 151,373 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $40,137,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ICONIQ Capital LLC raised its holdings in Brown & Brown by 5.4% during the second quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC now owns 2,110 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $234,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management raised its holdings in Brown & Brown by 0.7% during the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 17,854 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,675,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA raised its holdings in Brown & Brown by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 1,147 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $91,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Moment Partners LLC grew its position in Brown & Brown by 3.0% during the third quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 4,632 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $434,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the period. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its position in Brown & Brown by 2.1% during the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 6,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $638,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the period. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BRO. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. They set a “market outperform” rating for the company. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced 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 report on Wednesday, April 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $79.44.

Insider Activity at Brown & Brown

In other Brown & Brown news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. purchased 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $57.10 per share, for a total transaction of $114,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 47,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,719,159.10. This trade represents a 4.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 13.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

BRO stock opened at $56.32 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $62.56 and a 200-day moving average of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $19.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.11, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.63. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12-month low of $53.81 and a 12-month high of $113.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.94% and a return on equity of 12.94%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 11th were given a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 11th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.22%.

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.