Jupiter Topco LLC Takes Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 24,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,565,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Brown & Brown during the second quarter worth about $1,418,571,000. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,886,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,425,546,000 after acquiring an additional 407,006 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.6% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,608,720 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,017,847,000 after purchasing an additional 246,172 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,403,814 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,068,284,000 after purchasing an additional 282,988 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,957 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $631,495,000 after purchasing an additional 118,225 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BRO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup lowered shares of Brown & Brown from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $70.00 to $79.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Citizens Jmp raised their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $60.00 target price (up from $56.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Four 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.80.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE BRO opened at $71.42 on Friday. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a one year low of $53.81 and a one year high of $96.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 2.11. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.53, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.58.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 17.75%.The company’s revenue was up 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 12th were paid a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 12th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is currently 20.82%.

Brown & Brown 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.