Pacer Advisors Inc. Lowers Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Pacer Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 29.3% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 23,574 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 9,753 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $2,211,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BRO. State of Wyoming increased its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 22.6% during the 1st quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 1,182 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC grew its position in Brown & Brown by 93.0% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,043,000 after acquiring an additional 4,042 shares during the period. MAI Capital Management increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 39.1% during the first quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,807 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $225,000 after acquiring an additional 508 shares during the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 57.4% during the first quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 10,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,282,000 after acquiring an additional 3,756 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Visualize Group LP raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. Visualize Group LP now owns 185,094 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,026,000 after purchasing an additional 17,894 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BRO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Brown & Brown in a report on Thursday, November 20th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $97.00 price target (down previously from $135.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $79.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Brown & Brown from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 20th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $99.80.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:BRO opened at $80.20 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 52-week low of $76.17 and a 52-week high of $125.68. The company has a 50 day moving average of $80.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.01. The company has a market capitalization of $27.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.82.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.15. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 18.23% and a return on equity of 13.64%. The company had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.91 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were issued a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 5th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. This is an increase from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.76%.

Brown & Brown Company Profile

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.