Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Purchases 16,559 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 15.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 123,685 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,559 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $11,600,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on BRO shares. Citigroup downgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price 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. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $97.00 target price (down previously from $135.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $99.87.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

NYSE:BRO opened at $80.29 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $91.00. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 52-week low of $76.17 and a 52-week high of $125.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.41 billion, a PE ratio of 24.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.81.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.91 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were issued a dividend of $0.165 per share. This is an increase 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 payout ratio is presently 19.76%.

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.