Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO Holdings Cut by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 22.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 30,364 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,709 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $2,848,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BRO. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 38.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 33,444 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,132,000 after purchasing an additional 9,264 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth raised its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 5.2% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 11,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,387,000 after purchasing an additional 547 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 16.7% in the second quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 15,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,706,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 33.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $490,000 after buying an additional 1,118 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 21,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,338,000 after buying an additional 476 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of BRO stock opened at $71.21 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $75.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $83.68. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a one year low of $65.68 and a one year high of $125.68. The firm has a market cap of $24.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.66.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.02. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 17.84%.The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.86 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 35.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 4th were given a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 4th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 20.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on BRO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $80.00 to $73.00 in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $81.00 price target (down from $90.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Argus raised Brown & Brown to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.36.

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.