Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Lowers Stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Key Points

• Assenagon Asset Management S.A. reduced its stake in Brown & Brown by 85% in Q4, selling 73,285 shares and leaving it with 12,928 shares valued at about $1.03 million.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed — several firms cut price targets, but the consensus rating remains Hold with a $89.33 target; the stock trades around $65.22 and institutional investors own roughly 71% of the shares.
• Brown & Brown slightly beat EPS estimates ( $0.93 vs. $0.91 ), reported revenue up 35.7% year-over-year, and pays a quarterly dividend that annualizes to $0.66 (about a 1.0% yield).

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. reduced its stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO - Free Report) by 85.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,928 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 73,285 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.'s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $1,030,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 81.1% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,479,389 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,639,392,000 after acquiring an additional 7,827,992 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,416,190 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,445,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,821,229 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,330,892 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $3,501,264,000 after purchasing an additional 1,705,570 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 11.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,460,821 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,381,531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 170.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,931,839 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $181,187,000 after purchasing an additional 1,217,071 shares during the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on BRO shares. Argus upgraded shares of Brown & Brown to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Barclays cut their price objective on Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $80.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $81.00 target price (down from $90.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Mizuho raised Brown & Brown from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Brown & Brown has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $89.33.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

BRO opened at $65.22 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $22.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12-month low of $63.29 and a 12-month high of $125.68. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $70.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.13.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.02. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.84% and a return on equity of 12.93%. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.86 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 35.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 4th were issued a dividend of $0.165 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 4th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Brown & Brown's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.63%.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc NYSE: BRO is a professional insurance brokerage and risk advisory firm that provides a broad range of property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, and specialty insurance products. The company works with commercial, public sector and individual clients to design and place insurance programs, manage claims and loss control, and deliver risk management consulting. Its services also include wholesale brokerage, program administration and other specialty distribution solutions that connect carriers and intermediaries to niche markets.

Brown & Brown operates through a decentralized model of operating units and subsidiaries, enabling local client service with the scale to access national and specialty markets.

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