Motco Makes New Investment in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Motco acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $32,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GW&K Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 104.4% during the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 419 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 30.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 760,893 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $84,360,000 after acquiring an additional 178,082 shares during the period. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 764,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $95,130,000 after acquiring an additional 18,677 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,043,000. Finally, Jump Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 737.8% during the 1st quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 99,222 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,343,000 after buying an additional 87,379 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Brown & Brown

In related news, Director Bronislaw Edmund Masojada purchased 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $91.44 per share, with a total value of $91,440.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 5,000 shares in the company, valued at $457,200. The trade was a 25.00% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Paul J. Krump purchased 2,678 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $93.31 per share, with a total value of $249,884.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 5,353 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $499,488.43. The trade was a 100.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BRO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their price target on Brown & Brown from $120.00 to $106.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen raised Brown & Brown from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Brown & Brown from $122.00 to $106.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $120.00 price target (down from $125.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Brown & Brown from $98.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brown & Brown has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $108.38.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of BRO stock opened at $80.46 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $92.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.88. The stock has a market cap of $27.47 billion, a PE ratio of 24.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.79. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1 year low of $79.68 and a 1 year high of $125.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 6.72 and a current ratio of 2.10.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 13.64% and a net margin of 18.23%.Brown & Brown’s revenue was up 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.91 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.165 per share. This is a boost from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 5th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is presently 17.96%.

Brown & Brown Company Profile

Brown & Brown, Inc is an insurance agency, wholesale brokerage, insurance program and service organization. It engages in the provision of insurance brokerage services and casualty insurance underwriting services. It operates through the following segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services.