Patton Fund Management Inc. Has $231,000 Stock Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Patton Fund Management Inc. cut its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 86.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,458 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 15,894 shares during the period. Patton Fund Management Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $231,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BRO. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Brown & Brown by 16.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,625,322 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,949,779,000 after acquiring an additional 5,124,203 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,460,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,381,531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,139 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 16.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,369,576 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $813,624,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050,350 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter valued at $899,139,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 1.1% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,166,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $461,925,000 after purchasing an additional 46,235 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $79.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Mizuho set a $89.00 target price on Brown & Brown and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Brown & Brown from $98.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Monday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brown & Brown has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $99.80.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of BRO stock opened at $79.91 on Wednesday. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12 month low of $76.17 and a 12 month high of $125.68. The company has a market capitalization of $27.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.82. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $81.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 13.64% and a net margin of 18.23%.Brown & Brown’s quarterly revenue was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were paid a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is an increase from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 5th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.76%.

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.