Summit Global Investments Takes Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Summit Global Investments purchased a new position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 13,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $960,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,805,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 36.0% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 160,056 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,381,000 after purchasing an additional 42,337 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Brown & Brown by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,008 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 3,849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $274,000 after buying an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 3,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $267,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Brown & Brown

In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total transaction of $12,406,005.08. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 17.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com raised Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, March 17th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $87.30.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 0.9 %

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

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.07. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 21.09% and a return on equity of 16.43%. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 16.00%.

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.