Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO Stock Position Reduced by Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC

Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC decreased its position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 46.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,605 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 11,859 shares during the quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $1,084,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 423.1% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 272 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the 2nd quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC grew its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 4,369.2% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 581 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 568 shares during the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Mizuho raised shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $85.00 in a report on Friday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Brown & Brown in a report on Thursday, December 18th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $91.00 price target on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Brown & Brown from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Argus upgraded Brown & Brown to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.33.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

BRO opened at $65.22 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business’s 50 day moving average is $70.21 and its 200-day moving average is $79.13. The stock has a market cap of $22.20 billion, a PE ratio of 20.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.79. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $63.29 and a twelve month high of $125.68.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 17.84%.The firm’s revenue was up 35.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.86 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 4th were paid a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is currently 20.63%.

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.