Citigroup Increases Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target to $94.00

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its price target increased by equities researchers at Citigroup from $89.00 to $94.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 16.60% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group cut 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 note on Tuesday, January 9th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com upgraded Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the company from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.80.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Brown & Brown stock opened at $80.62 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $23.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $84.18 and a 200-day moving average of $76.60. Brown & Brown has a 52 week low of $59.91 and a 52 week high of $87.99.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 15.46% and a net margin of 20.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Brown & Brown will post 3.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 16.43% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in 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 worth $1,768,000 after purchasing an additional 11,559 shares in the last quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. purchased a new position in Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter worth about $4,765,000. Whittier Trust Co. increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 162,226 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,536,000 after purchasing an additional 17,479 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Brown & Brown by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 107,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,658,000 after acquiring an additional 12,748 shares during the period. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in Brown & Brown by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 277,331 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,369,000 after acquiring an additional 61,800 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

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.