Norden Group LLC Purchases New Stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 3,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Brown & Brown by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 5,236,392 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $372,360,000 after purchasing an additional 29,514 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Brown & Brown by 6.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,285,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $159,620,000 after acquiring an additional 130,647 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in Brown & Brown by 15.9% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,715,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $119,821,000 after acquiring an additional 235,001 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.9% in the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,516,285 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $105,897,000 after acquiring an additional 13,477 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Brown & Brown by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,221,896 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $85,337,000 after purchasing an additional 16,109 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BRO. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America cut shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.10.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of BRO stock opened at $82.70 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $23.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.45, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.79. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.71 and a fifty-two week high of $87.99. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 21.09% and a return on equity of 16.43%. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.00%.

Brown & Brown Company Profile

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.