Cerity Partners LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 155.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,210 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $1,659,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in Brown & Brown by 86.9% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 24,866 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,768,000 after purchasing an additional 11,559 shares during the period. Patton Fund Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth $4,765,000. Whittier Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 162,226 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,536,000 after acquiring an additional 17,479 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 28.7% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 277,331 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,369,000 after acquiring an additional 61,800 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth $26,900,000. 71.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. StockNews.com raised Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 17th. Finally, Bank of America lowered Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Brown & Brown currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.80.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 1.3 %

NYSE BRO opened at $82.17 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $76.72. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $59.91 and a twelve month high of $87.99. 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 company has a market capitalization of $23.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.85, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.78.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 15.46% and a net margin of 20.44%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.50 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Brown & Brown

In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total transaction of $12,406,005.08. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

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.