Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Acquires 93,658 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 2,420.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 97,528 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 93,658 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $6,935,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 5,236,392 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $372,360,000 after purchasing an additional 29,514 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 6.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,285,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $159,620,000 after buying an additional 130,647 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 15.9% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,715,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $119,821,000 after purchasing an additional 235,001 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.9% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,516,285 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $105,897,000 after purchasing an additional 13,477 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,221,896 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $85,337,000 after buying an additional 16,109 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on BRO. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $78.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $87.30.

Brown & Brown Stock Up 0.9 %

Brown & Brown stock traded up $0.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $83.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,012,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,399,759. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12 month low of $61.71 and a 12 month high of $87.99. The company has a market capitalization of $23.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.79.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.07. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 21.09%. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Brown & Brown

In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc markets and sells insurance products and services in the United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services. The Retail segment provides property and casualty, employee benefits insurance products, personal insurance products, specialties insurance products, risk management strategies, loss control survey and analysis, consultancy, and claims processing services.