Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. cut its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 51.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,049 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 10,714 shares during the quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $655,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cvfg LLC bought a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,010,000. Montag A & Associates Inc. grew its position in Brown & Brown by 249.1% during the first quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 1,606 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $105,000 after acquiring an additional 1,146 shares during the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Brown & Brown by 9.9% during the first quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,341 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $740,000 after acquiring an additional 1,024 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its position in Brown & Brown by 4.0% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 92,223 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,135,000 after acquiring an additional 3,567 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 9.1% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 196,182 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,050,000 after acquiring an additional 16,310 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Brown & Brown from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Citizens Jmp initiated coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. They set a “market outperform” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $78.81.

Insider Transactions at Brown & Brown

In other Brown & Brown news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. purchased 2,000 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $57.10 per share, for a total transaction of $114,200.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 47,621 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,719,159.10. This trade represents a 4.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 13.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Brown & Brown Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of BRO opened at $68.44 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.01, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.60. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $53.81 and a twelve month high of $108.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.69.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.94% and a return on equity of 12.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Monday, May 11th were paid a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.22%.

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.