Markel Group Inc. Acquires New Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Markel Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 11,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $877,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BRO. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 81.1% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,479,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,639,392,000 after purchasing an additional 7,827,992 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,416,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,445,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,821,229 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,330,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,501,264,000 after purchasing an additional 1,705,570 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 170.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,931,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $181,187,000 after purchasing an additional 1,217,071 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 1,679.0% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,204,318 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $112,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,136,623 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $76.00 to $72.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $91.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $80.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $69.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Brown & Brown currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.44.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of NYSE:BRO opened at $57.86 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $19.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.66. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $63.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.64. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1-year low of $53.81 and a 1-year high of $113.83.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.94% and a return on equity of 12.94%. Brown & Brown’s quarterly revenue was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.29 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. acquired 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was bought 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 in the company, valued at $2,719,159.10. This represents a 4.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through 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.