Wells Fargo & Company Boosts Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target to $85.00

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its price objective boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $84.00 to $85.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on BRO. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $87.10.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 1.0 %

BRO opened at $81.45 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Brown & Brown has a 1-year low of $61.71 and a 1-year high of $87.99. The company has a market capitalization of $23.23 billion, a PE ratio of 25.06, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.78. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $77.06.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 21.09% and a return on equity of 16.43%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 3.61 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Brown & Brown

In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total transaction of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter valued at $113,000. SlateStone Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 172.8% in the 1st quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 15,416 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,350,000 after purchasing an additional 9,766 shares during the period. Strategy Asset Managers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 176.9% in the 1st quarter. Strategy Asset Managers LLC now owns 12,063 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,056,000 after purchasing an additional 7,707 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 13.4% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 20,602 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,804,000 after purchasing an additional 2,430 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 36.8% in the 1st quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 3,624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $317,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares during the period. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.