Summit Financial LLC Buys 168 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Summit Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 7,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the quarter. Summit Financial LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $717,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Y.D. More Investments Ltd boosted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 122.7% during the fourth quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Brown & Brown during the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 130.7% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 413 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BRO. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $128.00 target price on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Brown & Brown from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Brown & Brown from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Brown & Brown from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $112.67.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

BRO opened at $124.36 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $114.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $108.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a current ratio of 1.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.86. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 52-week low of $80.33 and a 52-week high of $125.68.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.10. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 20.68% and a return on equity of 17.81%. As a group, analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 5th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 5th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.34%.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc is an insurance agency, wholesale brokerage, insurance program and service organization. It engages in the provision of insurance brokerage services and casualty insurance underwriting services. It operates through the following segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services.