Royal Bank of Canada Raises Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target to $110.00

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its price objective upped by Royal Bank of Canada from $95.00 to $110.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

BRO has been the subject of several other research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $94.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $97.40.

Brown & Brown Stock Up 1.8 %

BRO stock opened at $99.17 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $28.29 billion, a PE ratio of 30.51, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 2.35. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $91.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.45. Brown & Brown has a one year low of $66.73 and a one year high of $99.26.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 17.00%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.68 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown will post 3.67 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th will be paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Julie Turpin sold 3,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.92, for a total transaction of $301,232.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,597 shares in the company, valued at $2,121,842.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brown & Brown

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BRO. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the first quarter valued at $32,000. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the first quarter valued at $36,000. First PREMIER Bank purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the first quarter valued at $40,000. Park Place Capital Corp lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 166.5% in the fourth quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 509 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intelligent Financial Strategies purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the first quarter valued at $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Company Profile

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.