Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target Raised to $118.00 at Royal Bank of Canada

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its target price hoisted by Royal Bank of Canada from $113.00 to $118.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

BRO has been the topic of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com lowered Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James increased their price objective on Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Argus assumed coverage on Brown & Brown in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $120.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $98.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $106.50.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BRO opened at $104.17 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $104.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $95.73. The firm has a market cap of $29.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.83. Brown & Brown has a 52 week low of $69.13 and a 52 week high of $107.67. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.03. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 17.12% and a net margin of 22.65%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Brown & Brown will post 3.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a positive change from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 6th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 14.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.51, for a total transaction of $14,071,226.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.51, for a total value of $14,071,226.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO R. Andrew Watts sold 2,500 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total transaction of $250,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,872,802.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Crewe Advisors LLC raised its position in Brown & Brown by 330.4% during the second quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 297 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 298.5% in the third quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 267 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 142.3% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in Brown & Brown by 65.7% during the second quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 532 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

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.