Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Now Covered by Argus

Argus initiated coverage on shares of Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $120.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock.

BRO has been the topic of several other research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $86.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $104.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $94.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $101.67.

Brown & Brown Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE BRO opened at $102.99 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $101.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $92.32. The company has a market cap of $29.38 billion, a PE ratio of 31.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.83. Brown & Brown has a 52-week low of $66.73 and a 52-week high of $106.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 17.00%. The business’s revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Brown & Brown will post 3.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Brown & Brown

In other Brown & Brown news, CFO R. Andrew Watts sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total transaction of $250,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,872,802.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.51, for a total value of $14,071,226.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO R. Andrew Watts sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total transaction of $250,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,872,802.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BRO. Congress Asset Management Co. MA purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth $82,445,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 105.1% in the second quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 2,068,333 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $184,930,000 after purchasing an additional 1,059,711 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 76.2% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,000,227 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $142,236,000 after purchasing an additional 865,082 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 24.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,489,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $311,979,000 after purchasing an additional 687,783 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the first quarter worth $49,598,000. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.