Retirement Systems of Alabama Sells 1,167 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lessened its holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 52,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,167 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $3,702,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Brown & Brown by 1,861.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 769,051 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 81.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,021,668 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $71,353,000 after purchasing an additional 460,068 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in 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 valued at $119,821,000 after buying an additional 235,001 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in 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 valued at $27,666,000 after buying an additional 234,853 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 32.3% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 544,058 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,997,000 after buying an additional 132,774 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on BRO shares. UBS Group boosted 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. Bank of America cut Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $87.30.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 1.2 %

Brown & Brown stock opened at $85.26 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $24.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $84.20 and a 200-day moving average of $77.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a one year low of $61.71 and a one year high of $87.99.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 21.09%. The business’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.00%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of Brown & Brown 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 completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 16.43% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Brown & Brown 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.