Russell Investments Group Ltd. Grows Stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 55.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 358,929 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 127,903 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned 0.13% of Brown & Brown worth $25,519,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Park Place Capital Corp lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 166.5% in the 4th quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 509 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 174.0% in the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 348 shares in the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC boosted its stake in Brown & Brown by 150.6% during the 3rd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 589 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter worth $42,000. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 17.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Raymond James increased their price objective on Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 17th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $87.10.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of BRO stock opened at $82.70 on Thursday. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.71 and a 1 year high of $87.99. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $84.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $77.41. The company has a market cap of $23.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.45, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97.

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

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

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