CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC Trims Stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC cut its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 95.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 61,653 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,359,536 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $5,782,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BRO. Prana Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Brown & Brown by 34.3% in the third quarter. Prana Capital Management LP now owns 940,841 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $88,241,000 after purchasing an additional 240,249 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the third quarter valued at approximately $3,804,000. First Affirmative Financial Network raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 13.3% in the third quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 2,597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $244,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the period. Caerus Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the third quarter worth approximately $610,000. Finally, Faithward Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Faithward Advisors LLC now owns 30,980 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,906,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Brown & Brown from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $85.00 in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Brown & Brown to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.33.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of Brown & Brown stock opened at $67.11 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $72.23 and a 200 day moving average of $80.77. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $22.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.97, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.79. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.68 and a fifty-two week high of $125.68.

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

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 4th were issued a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 20.63%.

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.