Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Upgraded at Mizuho

Mizuho upgraded shares of Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note released on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $85.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $84.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Argus raised shares of Brown & Brown to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Brown & Brown in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Citigroup cut Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $81.00 target price (down from $90.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price target on Brown & Brown from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.43.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of Brown & Brown stock opened at $71.70 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.79. Brown & Brown has a 52-week low of $65.68 and a 52-week high of $125.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a current ratio of 1.66. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $75.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $83.35.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.84% and a return on equity of 12.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.86 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 35.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 4th were paid a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is currently 20.63%.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 81.1% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,479,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,639,392,000 after acquiring an additional 7,827,992 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter valued at about $516,837,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,625,322 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,949,779,000 after buying an additional 5,124,203 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors purchased a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter valued at about $371,654,000. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. boosted its stake in Brown & Brown by 132.8% in the fourth quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 4,538,584 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $361,725,000 after buying an additional 2,589,048 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.