22,274 Shares in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO Purchased by Invst LLC

Invst LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 22,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,429,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BRO. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,418,571,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $516,837,000. Capital International Investors purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter valued at $371,654,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 2nd quarter valued at $266,941,000. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. increased its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 132.8% in the 4th quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 4,538,584 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $361,725,000 after purchasing an additional 2,589,048 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on BRO shares. Mizuho boosted their price target on Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Barclays increased their price objective on Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $73.00 target price (up from $65.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.80.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

BRO opened at $73.35 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $68.25 and its 200 day moving average is $65.76. The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a market cap of $24.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.14, a PEG ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 0.59. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12-month low of $53.81 and a 12-month high of $97.49.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.01). Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.75% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The business had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.03 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.165 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 12th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is presently 20.82%.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc (NYSE: BRO) is a professional insurance brokerage and risk advisory firm that provides a broad range of property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, and specialty insurance products. The company works with commercial, public sector and individual clients to design and place insurance programs, manage claims and loss control, and deliver risk management consulting. Its services also include wholesale brokerage, program administration and other specialty distribution solutions that connect carriers and intermediaries to niche markets.

Brown & Brown operates through a decentralized model of operating units and subsidiaries, enabling local client service with the scale to access national and specialty markets.