Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Price Target Lowered to $68.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its price objective decreased by Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $68.00 in a research report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on BRO. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Brown & Brown from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $60.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday. Citizens Jmp began coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. They issued a “market outperform” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $78.56.

Brown & Brown Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE:BRO opened at $67.91 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $23.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.83, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $59.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.60. Brown & Brown has a 52 week low of $53.81 and a 52 week high of $108.36.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 17.94%.The company’s revenue was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.29 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Brown & Brown

In related news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. acquired 2,000 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $57.10 per share, for a total transaction of $114,200.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 47,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,719,159.10. This trade represents a 4.38% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 13.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,634,847 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,999,497,000 after buying an additional 303,955 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its stake 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 valued at $1,425,546,000 after acquiring an additional 407,006 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.6% during the 1st 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 during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Brown & Brown by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,403,814 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,068,284,000 after acquiring an additional 282,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Brown & Brown by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,957 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $631,495,000 after acquiring an additional 118,225 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.