Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Citigroup boosted their price target on Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of 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 report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.30.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

BRO opened at $85.61 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $24.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $84.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.01. Brown & Brown has a 52-week low of $61.71 and a 52-week high of $87.99.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 21.09% and a return on equity of 16.43%. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. Brown & Brown’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown will post 3.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Brown & Brown

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 16.43% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the first quarter worth approximately $36,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. First PREMIER Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the first quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Park Place Capital Corp raised its stake in Brown & Brown by 166.5% in the 4th quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 509 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

About Brown & Brown

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.