Hantz Financial Services Inc. Sells 12,559 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Hantz Financial Services Inc. lowered its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 12.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 91,396 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 12,559 shares during the quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $10,133,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BRO. Parnassus Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter worth about $899,139,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter worth about $72,895,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,501,119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,794,339,000 after purchasing an additional 560,980 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 66.0% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,169,936 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $145,540,000 after purchasing an additional 465,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 51.5% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 952,423 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $105,595,000 after purchasing an additional 323,733 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on BRO shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $122.00 to $106.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Brown & Brown from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $120.00 to $106.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $102.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $112.00 price objective for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.00.

Brown & Brown Trading Down 2.6%

BRO opened at $80.24 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 6.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.47 billion, a PE ratio of 24.03, a PEG ratio of 1.85 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 firm has a 50-day moving average price of $92.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $102.03.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 net margin of 18.23% and a return on equity of 13.64%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th will be paid a $0.165 dividend. This is a boost from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 5th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 17.29%.

Insider Activity

In other Brown & Brown news, Director Paul J. Krump bought 2,678 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were bought at an average price of $93.31 per share, with a total value of $249,884.18. Following the purchase, the director owned 5,353 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $499,488.43. This trade represents a 100.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Bronislaw Edmund Masojada bought 1,000 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $91.44 per share, for a total transaction of $91,440.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $457,200. The trade was a 25.00% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 17.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.