Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO Shares Bought by Copeland Capital Management LLC

Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 118.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 108,103 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 58,630 shares during the period. Copeland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $10,139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State of Wyoming increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 22.6% in the 1st quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 1,182 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 93.0% in the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,043,000 after buying an additional 4,042 shares in the last quarter. MAI Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 39.1% during the 1st quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,807 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $225,000 after buying an additional 508 shares during the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec boosted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 57.4% in the 1st quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 10,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,282,000 after buying an additional 3,756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Visualize Group LP boosted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. Visualize Group LP now owns 185,094 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,026,000 after buying an additional 17,894 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

NYSE:BRO opened at $80.20 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The firm has a market cap of $27.38 billion, a PE ratio of 24.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $92.01. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1-year low of $76.17 and a 1-year high of $125.68.

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

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 5th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.76%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $79.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Brown & Brown from $120.00 to $106.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $99.80.

Brown & Brown 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.