WealthPLAN Partners LLC Lowers Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

WealthPLAN Partners LLC lowered its stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 34.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,992 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 10,499 shares during the quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $1,304,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Basepoint Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the second quarter valued at $30,000. DV Equities LLC purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Brown & Brown Stock Up 1.2%

BRO opened at $69.26 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $23.48 billion, a PE ratio of 22.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $59.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.78. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $53.81 and a twelve month high of $108.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

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

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 11th were paid a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on BRO shares. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $76.00 to $72.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Brown & Brown from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.19.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. acquired 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $57.10 per share, with a total value of $114,200.00. Following the completion of the purchase, 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 acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 13.13% of the company’s stock.

About Brown & Brown

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.