Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $76.60

Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nineteen research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued 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 $76.60.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on BRO shares. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Brown & Brown from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Brown & Brown from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $70.00 to $79.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,886,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,425,546,000 after acquiring an additional 407,006 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Brown & Brown in the second quarter valued at about $1,418,571,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Brown & Brown by 1.6% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,608,720 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,017,847,000 after buying an additional 246,172 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,957 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $631,495,000 after acquiring an additional 118,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $516,837,000. 71.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of BRO stock opened at $60.23 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $69.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.15 billion, a PE ratio of 19.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.58. Brown & Brown has a fifty-two week low of $53.81 and a fifty-two week high of $96.55.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 17.75%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Brown & Brown will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 12th were paid a $0.1650 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 12th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.82%.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc is an independent insurance brokerage and risk management company headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. The company helps businesses, public entities and individuals identify, manage and transfer risk by providing insurance products and related advisory services.

Its offerings include property and casualty insurance, employee benefits, personal insurance, surety products, risk management services and specialty insurance programs. Brown & Brown also operates wholesale brokerage and managing general agency businesses, which provide specialized coverage and market access to retail insurance agents and brokers.

Founded in 1939 by J.