Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target Raised to $85.00

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its price target increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $84.00 to $85.00 in a report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on BRO. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a buy rating to a hold rating and cut their target price for the company from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $87.10.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of BRO opened at $81.46 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Brown & Brown has a 12 month low of $61.71 and a 12 month high of $87.99. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $77.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.06, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.78.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 21.09%. The business’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 3.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 17.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BRO. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter worth $113,000. SlateStone Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 172.8% in the first quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 15,416 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,350,000 after purchasing an additional 9,766 shares during the period. Strategy Asset Managers LLC increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 176.9% in the first quarter. Strategy Asset Managers LLC now owns 12,063 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,056,000 after purchasing an additional 7,707 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Brown & Brown by 13.4% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 20,602 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,804,000 after purchasing an additional 2,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 36.8% during the first quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 3,624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares during the period. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.