Copeland Capital Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Key Points

• Copeland Capital Management slashed its Brown & Brown stake by 93% in the first quarter, selling 94,458 shares and leaving it with 7,105 shares valued at about $463,000.
• Brown & Brown’s latest quarter beat expectations, reporting $1.39 EPS versus the $1.36 consensus and $1.90 billion in revenue, up 35.4% from a year earlier.
• Analysts are mixed on the stock, with a Hold consensus and an average price target of $78.62; the shares recently traded around $69.29 and the company also pays a quarterly dividend yielding about 1.0%.

Copeland Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO - Free Report) by 93.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,105 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 94,458 shares during the period. Copeland Capital Management LLC's holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $463,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,634,847 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,999,497,000 after acquiring an additional 303,955 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Brown & Brown by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,886,395 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,425,546,000 after buying an additional 407,006 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.6% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,608,720 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,017,847,000 after buying an additional 246,172 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,403,814 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,068,284,000 after buying an additional 282,988 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,957 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $631,495,000 after buying an additional 118,225 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on BRO shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $76.00 to $72.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $73.00 price target (up from $65.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brown & Brown currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $78.62.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 0.2%

BRO opened at $69.29 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $23.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.60. The business's 50-day moving average price is $61.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12 month low of $53.81 and a 12 month high of $104.97.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 17.94%.Brown & Brown's revenue for the quarter was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.29 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 11th were issued a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 11th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Brown & Brown's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.22%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. bought 2,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $57.10 per share, for a total transaction of $114,200.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 47,621 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,719,159.10. This trade represents a 4.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 13.13% of the company's stock.

Brown & Brown Profile

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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