Brooklyn Investment Group Takes $26,000 Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 253 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $26,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,512,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in Brown & Brown by 12.4% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 251,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,855,000 after purchasing an additional 27,879 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Brown & Brown by 162.3% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 488,483 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,675,000 after purchasing an additional 302,240 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 27.3% during the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 31,105 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after purchasing an additional 6,675 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,315,654 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $136,302,000 after buying an additional 17,934 shares during the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on BRO. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $113.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America upped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Brown & Brown from $98.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Brown & Brown from $112.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $107.42.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of BRO stock opened at $113.10 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $32.34 billion, a PE ratio of 30.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.82. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $107.21 and a 200-day moving average of $99.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.73. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a one year low of $69.13 and a one year high of $114.15.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.16 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 22.65% and a return on equity of 17.12%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. 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 0.53%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is currently 16.35%.

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.