Congress Asset Management Co. Lowers Holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Congress Asset Management Co. lowered its stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 13.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 580,610 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 89,057 shares during the quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. owned about 0.17% of Brown & Brown worth $46,275,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its stake in Brown & Brown by 423.1% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 272 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter valued at $49,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 4,369.2% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 581 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 568 shares during the period. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Mizuho upgraded Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $84.00 to $85.00 in a report on Friday, February 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Brown & Brown from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $80.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Argus upgraded Brown & Brown to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Four 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, Brown & Brown currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $89.33.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

NYSE:BRO opened at $66.75 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.86, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $71.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $80.36. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.68 and a twelve month high of $125.68.

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

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 4th were paid a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 4th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.