Balefire LLC Buys Shares of 7,668 Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Balefire LLC purchased a new position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 7,668 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $500,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ICONIQ Capital LLC increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC now owns 2,110 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $234,000 after buying an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management boosted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 17,854 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,675,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA boosted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 1,147 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $91,000 after buying an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 6,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $638,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Independent Advisor Alliance grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 33,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,694,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BRO has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered Brown & Brown from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $76.00 to $72.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Brown & Brown from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brown & Brown presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $78.62.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

BRO opened at $68.97 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12-month low of $53.81 and a 12-month high of $104.25. The business has a 50 day moving average of $61.41 and a 200-day moving average of $67.01. The stock has a market cap of $23.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.18, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.60.

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

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Monday, May 11th were paid a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 21.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. bought 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $57.10 per share, for a total transaction of $114,200.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 47,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,719,159.10. This represents a 4.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 13.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.