Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Brown & Brown, Inc. has received an average rating of "Hold" from 16 brokerages, with one sell, eight holds, and seven buy ratings. The average price target is $109.92.
• Recently reported quarterly earnings showed an EPS of $1.03, exceeding estimates, with a revenue of $1.29 billion—a 9.1% year-over-year increase.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.15, representing an annualized yield of 0.6% with a payout ratio of 17.29%.

Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the sixteen brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $109.9231.

A number of research firms have recently commented on BRO. Truist Financial set a $120.00 price objective on Brown & Brown in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Citigroup began coverage on Brown & Brown in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $112.00 price objective on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $104.00 to $87.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $120.00 price objective (down from $125.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 0.5%

Brown & Brown stock opened at $96.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 6.72 and a current ratio of 6.72. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $94.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.67 billion, a PE ratio of 27.67, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.79. Brown & Brown has a 52 week low of $89.99 and a 52 week high of $125.68.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 28th. The financial services provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 15.10% and a net margin of 19.89%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.93 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 13th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 13th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Brown & Brown's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Bronislaw Edmund Masojada acquired 1,000 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $91.44 per share, for a total transaction of $91,440.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $457,200. The trade was a 25.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Paul J. Krump acquired 2,678 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $93.31 per share, with a total value of $249,884.18. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,353 shares in the company, valued at approximately $499,488.43. This trade represents a 100.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 17.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BRO. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,625,322 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $3,949,779,000 after buying an additional 5,124,203 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,940,046 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,609,742,000 after buying an additional 38,078 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,460,821 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,381,531,000 after buying an additional 1,262,139 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 16.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,369,576 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $813,624,000 after buying an additional 1,050,350 shares during the period. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter worth approximately $899,139,000. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company's stock.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc is an insurance agency, wholesale brokerage, insurance program and service organization. It engages in the provision of insurance brokerage services and casualty insurance underwriting services. It operates through the following segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services.

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