Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target Raised to $82.00

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its price objective upped by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $80.00 to $82.00 in a research note published on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an underperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on BRO. UBS Group boosted their price objective 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. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Brown & Brown from a buy rating to a hold rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Brown & Brown from a neutral rating to a buy rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target 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 given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $87.30.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:BRO opened at $83.50 on Friday. Brown & Brown has a 1 year low of $61.71 and a 1 year high of $87.99. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $84.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $77.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97. The company has a market cap of $23.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.79.

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

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BRO. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 3.6% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 105,268 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,352,000 after purchasing an additional 3,649 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Brown & Brown by 18.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 18,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,267,000 after buying an additional 2,767 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in Brown & Brown by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 40,818 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,851,000 after acquiring an additional 614 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Brown & Brown by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 37,122 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,593,000 after acquiring an additional 3,360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 8.8% in the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 39,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,773,000 after acquiring an additional 3,200 shares during the period. 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.