New York State Common Retirement Fund Trims Stock Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO - Free Report) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 349,597 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 21,115 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.12% of Brown & Brown worth $24,860,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BRO. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 37.8% during the third quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 758 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 47.6% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 41,142 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,873,000 after acquiring an additional 13,273 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 3.4% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 97,918 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $6,839,000 after acquiring an additional 3,184 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Equity Partners purchased a new position in Brown & Brown in the third quarter valued at about $258,000. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in Brown & Brown by 3.6% in 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 last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Brown & Brown

In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 17.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BRO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded Brown & Brown from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Sunday, March 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Brown & Brown from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $87.10.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BRO traded down $0.82 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $81.46. 1,710,291 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,280,265. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.71 and a 1 year high of $87.99. The company has a market cap of $23.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.06, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.97. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.13.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 21.09%. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. The business's revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. Brown & Brown's payout ratio is currently 16.00%.

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.