Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super Invests $477,000 in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 7,308 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $477,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BRO. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Brown & Brown during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the second quarter worth approximately $30,000. DV Equities LLC bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BRO opened at $69.29 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $23.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.60. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $61.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.19. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $53.81 and a fifty-two week high of $104.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a current ratio of 1.64.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.94% and a return on equity of 12.94%. Brown & Brown’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.29 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Brown & Brown

In other news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. bought 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $57.10 per share, for a total transaction of $114,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 47,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 13.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BRO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $73.00 price objective (up from $65.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $69.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Weiss Ratings cut Brown & Brown from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Citizens Jmp boosted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $78.62.

About Brown & Brown

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.