Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases Shares of 14,300 Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 14,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,017,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BRO. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 1,861.7% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 810,359 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $56,595,000 after purchasing an additional 769,051 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 81.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,021,668 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $71,353,000 after purchasing an additional 460,068 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 1,831.8% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 397,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,780,000 after purchasing an additional 377,173 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 15.9% in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,715,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $119,821,000 after purchasing an additional 235,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 145.6% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 396,141 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,666,000 after purchasing an additional 234,853 shares during the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of BRO opened at $82.13 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.00 and a 12 month high of $87.99. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $84.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.99. The firm has a market cap of $23.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.27, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.78.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.82% and a net margin of 21.09%. The business’s revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Raymond James raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. UBS Group raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.10.

Insider Transactions at Brown & Brown

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 16.43% 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.