Legal & General Group Plc Makes New Investment in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc initiated a position in Brown & Brown during the second quarter, purchasing 1.08 million shares valued at approximately $69.1 million, or 0.32% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: Brown & Brown has a consensus “Hold” rating and a $76.80 average price target, with recent targets ranging from $73 to $86.
• The company’s latest quarter showed revenue growth of 30.4% year over year to $1.65 billion, but earnings and revenue fell slightly short of analyst expectations. Brown & Brown also maintains a $0.165 quarterly dividend, yielding about 0.9%.

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 1,077,023 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $69,091,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.32% of Brown & Brown as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Brown & Brown during the second quarter worth approximately $30,000. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. DV Equities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BRO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $73.00 target price (up from $65.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Citigroup lowered shares of Brown & Brown from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $79.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Brown & Brown from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Brown & Brown has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $76.80.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

NYSE BRO opened at $73.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 2.11. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $69.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.80. The company has a market cap of $24.53 billion, a PE ratio of 23.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.59. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1-year low of $53.81 and a 1-year high of $97.49.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.01). Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 17.75%.The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 12th. Brown & Brown's payout ratio is 20.82%.

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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