Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO Shares Bought by Saudi Central Bank

Saudi Central Bank grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 88.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,204 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,492 shares during the period. Saudi Central Bank’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $1,296,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,418,571,000. Capital World Investors raised its position 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. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.6% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,608,720 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,017,847,000 after acquiring an additional 246,172 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,403,814 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,068,284,000 after acquiring an additional 282,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,957 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $631,495,000 after acquiring an additional 118,225 shares during the period. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on BRO. Mizuho upped their target price on Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Brown & Brown from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Citigroup downgraded Brown & Brown from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $79.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Brown & Brown from $69.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.80.

Brown & Brown Trading Down 4.7%

Shares of NYSE:BRO opened at $68.07 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.47, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.58. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1-year low of $53.81 and a 1-year high of $96.55. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $70.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.92.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.01). Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.75% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.03 EPS. Brown & Brown’s quarterly revenue was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.165 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 12th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 20.82%.

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.