Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO Shares Bought by Federated Hermes Inc.

Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 1,413.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 213,101 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 199,024 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $23,627,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,625,322 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,949,779,000 after acquiring an additional 5,124,203 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 16.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,369,576 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $813,624,000 after acquiring an additional 1,050,350 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter worth about $899,139,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Brown & Brown by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,166,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $461,925,000 after purchasing an additional 46,235 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the second quarter valued at about $433,740,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $79.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $98.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $120.00 to $106.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brown & Brown currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.69.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 1.0%

BRO stock opened at $78.41 on Wednesday. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 52-week low of $76.17 and a 52-week high of $125.68. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market cap of $26.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.47, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $95.11.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 13.64% and a net margin of 18.23%.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 firm posted $0.91 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were given a dividend of $0.165 per share. This is a positive change from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 5th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 19.76%.

Brown & Brown Profile

Brown & Brown, Inc is an insurance agency, wholesale brokerage, insurance program and service organization. It engages in the provision of insurance brokerage services and casualty insurance underwriting services. It operates through the following segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services.