Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO Stock Position Lowered by Bessemer Group Inc.

Bessemer Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 22.3% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 28,517 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,168 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $1,859,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BRO. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in Brown & Brown in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Basepoint Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. DV Equities LLC bought a new stake in Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Maseco LLP bought a new stake in Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth approximately $60,000. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. acquired 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were purchased 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 approximately $2,719,159.10. This represents a 4.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 13.13% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of BRO stock opened at $65.39 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.82. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1 year low of $53.81 and a 1 year high of $104.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.60.

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

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on BRO. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Brown & Brown from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, July 6th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $73.00 price objective (up from $65.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Bank of America cut their target price on Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Brown & Brown from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Brown & Brown has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $78.62.

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.