Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Friday morning.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on BRO. UBS Group boosted their target price on Brown & Brown from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Brown & Brown from $104.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America raised Brown & Brown from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $91.00 to $101.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $97.40.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE BRO opened at $99.17 on Friday. Brown & Brown has a twelve month low of $66.73 and a twelve month high of $99.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $91.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $85.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.29 billion, a PE ratio of 30.51, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.82.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.05. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 17.00% and a net margin of 21.95%. The business had revenue of $1.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 3.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 7th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Brown & Brown news, EVP Julie Turpin sold 3,350 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.92, for a total transaction of $301,232.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,121,842.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 17.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BRO. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 86.9% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 24,866 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,768,000 after purchasing an additional 11,559 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,526 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $251,000 after purchasing an additional 529 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,761 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,121,000 after purchasing an additional 968 shares during the last quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at about $61,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.