Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Sets New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Raymond James raised their price target on the stock from $90.00 to $95.00. Raymond James currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Brown & Brown traded as high as $87.42 and last traded at $87.00, with a volume of 64646 shares. The stock had previously closed at $86.42.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on BRO. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Bank of America cut shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Two 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $84.90.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Clear Street Markets LLC raised its holdings in Brown & Brown by 93.7% in the first quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 461 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. West Tower Group LLC acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Park Place Capital Corp raised its holdings in Brown & Brown by 166.5% during the fourth quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 509 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 0.3 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $75.46. The company has a market cap of $24.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.61, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.78.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 20.44% and a return on equity of 15.46%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.29 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 16.99%.

Brown & Brown Company Profile

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.