Cwm LLC Increases Holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Cwm LLC increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 11.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,428 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 564 shares during the quarter. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $386,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Park Place Capital Corp boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its position in Brown & Brown by 174.0% during the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the period. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 150.6% during the 3rd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 589 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 354 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $87.10.

Brown & Brown Stock Up 1.4 %

BRO opened at $82.70 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $23.59 billion, a PE ratio of 25.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.78. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $61.71 and a twelve month high of $87.99. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $84.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 21.09%. The business’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

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 of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is currently 16.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value 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 $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 16.43% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Brown & Brown 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.