M Holdings Securities Inc. Takes Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

M Holdings Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 31,311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,495,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,634,847 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,999,497,000 after buying an additional 303,955 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,886,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,425,546,000 after buying an additional 407,006 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,120,826 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,230,602,000 after buying an additional 660,005 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,957 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $631,495,000 after buying an additional 118,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter worth $516,837,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Brown & Brown

In related news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. purchased 2,000 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $57.10 per share, for a total transaction of $114,200.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 47,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,719,159.10. This represents a 4.38% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 13.13% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 1.7%

NYSE BRO opened at $60.13 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $61.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $70.07. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12 month low of $53.81 and a 12 month high of $111.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.38 billion, a PE ratio of 19.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.03. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 17.94%.The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 11th were given a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 11th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 21.22%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on BRO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on Brown & Brown from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Brown & Brown from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $69.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 13th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.44.

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.