Raymond James Raises Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target to $95.00

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its target price increased by Raymond James from $90.00 to $95.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on BRO. StockNews.com raised shares of Brown & Brown from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Sunday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Bank of America cut shares of Brown & Brown from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and upped their target price for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $84.90.

Brown & Brown Stock Up 0.3 %

BRO opened at $87.54 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $82.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $75.56. Brown & Brown has a twelve month low of $55.99 and a twelve month high of $87.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.61, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.78.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 20.44% and a return on equity of 15.46%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 3.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.99%.

Insider Activity at Brown & Brown

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total transaction of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 17.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 17,793 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,265,000 after purchasing an additional 282 shares in the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at about $288,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,152,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,001,903,000 after purchasing an additional 266,441 shares in the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at about $82,445,000. Finally, American International Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 64,959 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,619,000 after purchasing an additional 831 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Company Profile

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.