Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Purchases 59,997 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 7.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 820,890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 59,997 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $76,991,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BRO. First Horizon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown during the third quarter worth about $77,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new position in Brown & Brown during the 3rd quarter valued at about $270,000. Freedom Day Solutions LLC increased its holdings in Brown & Brown by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 18,632 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,747,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Phillips Financial Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 22.8% in the third quarter. Phillips Financial Management LLC now owns 5,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $475,000 after purchasing an additional 940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 26.9% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 40,077 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,759,000 after purchasing an additional 8,507 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $84.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Tuesday, December 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $99.27.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

NYSE BRO opened at $79.38 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $27.10 billion, a PE ratio of 23.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 52-week low of $76.17 and a 52-week high of $125.68. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $89.87.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.15. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 18.23% and a return on equity of 13.64%. The firm had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were given a $0.165 dividend. This is an increase from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 5th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.76%.

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.