Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. Takes Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 59,964 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,624,000. Brown & Brown accounts for approximately 1.6% of Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BRO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Brown & Brown by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,625,322 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,949,779,000 after buying an additional 5,124,203 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 11.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,460,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,381,531,000 after acquiring an additional 1,262,139 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 16.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,369,576 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $813,624,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050,350 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 1.1% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,166,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $461,925,000 after purchasing an additional 46,235 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $433,740,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

BRO opened at $80.75 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $80.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $92.20. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $76.17 and a fifty-two week high of $125.68. The firm has a market cap of $27.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.82.

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

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were given a $0.165 dividend. This is a boost from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 5th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is 19.76%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BRO. Mizuho set a $89.00 target price on Brown & Brown and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 17th. 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 report on Tuesday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $91.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $102.00 to $84.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $99.80.

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.