Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Reduces Holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 92.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 21,508 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 277,133 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $2,017,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,330,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,501,264,000 after acquiring an additional 1,705,570 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Brown & Brown by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,416,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,445,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,821,229 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in 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 valued at $1,381,531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,139 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Brown & Brown by 16.6% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,369,576 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $813,624,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050,350 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Brown & Brown by 1.1% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Brown & Brown stock opened at $68.37 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.66. The stock has a market cap of $23.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $73.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $82.07. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1 year low of $65.68 and a 1 year high of $125.68.

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

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 4th were issued a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 4th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BRO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho upgraded Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $84.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Barclays reduced their price target on Brown & Brown from $82.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $94.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Brown & Brown in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $91.00 price objective on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Brown & Brown presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.29.

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.