Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO Shares Sold by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans reduced its stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 27.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 32,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 12,294 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $3,089,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Brown & Brown during the second quarter worth approximately $30,000. Motco bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the second quarter valued at $49,000. Evelyn Partners Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the second quarter valued at $52,000. Finally, Generali Investments Management Co LLC bought a new position in Brown & Brown during the second quarter valued at about $60,000. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Brown & Brown Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of NYSE:BRO opened at $73.87 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.07. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.45 and a 52 week high of $125.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 1.67. The company has a market cap of $25.22 billion, a PE ratio of 23.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.79.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.84% and a return on equity of 12.93%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.86 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 4th will be given a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is presently 20.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on BRO. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $81.00 price target (down from $90.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $94.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Brown & Brown from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $80.00 to $73.00 in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on Brown & Brown in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.64.

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.