Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target Increased to $85.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

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

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on BRO. Bank of America cut Brown & Brown from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Brown & Brown from a buy rating to a hold rating and decreased their target price for the company from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Two research 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 presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $87.10.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

BRO opened at $82.13 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $84.30 and a 200 day moving average of $76.99. Brown & Brown has a 52-week low of $60.00 and a 52-week high of $87.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market cap of $23.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.27, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.78.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 21.09%. The company had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. Brown & Brown’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown will post 3.57 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 16.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 17.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp purchased a new position in Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter worth $36,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. First PREMIER Bank purchased a new position in Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter worth $40,000. Park Place Capital Corp grew its stake in Brown & Brown by 166.5% during the 4th quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 509 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its stake in Brown & Brown by 174.0% during the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently 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.