Summit Global Investments Makes New Investment in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Summit Global Investments acquired a new position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 13,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $960,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter valued at $27,805,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 36.0% in the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 160,056 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,381,000 after buying an additional 42,337 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,008 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 187 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 3,849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Financial LLC grew its position in Brown & Brown by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 3,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Brown & Brown

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total transaction of $12,406,005.08. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 17.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BRO traded up $0.78 during trading on Friday, reaching $83.50. The stock had a trading volume of 1,012,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,399,759. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97. The stock has a market cap of $23.82 billion, a PE ratio of 25.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.79. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a one year low of $61.71 and a one year high of $87.99. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $84.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $77.54.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.07. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 21.09% and a return on equity of 16.43%. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BRO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America cut shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $78.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.30.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc markets and sells insurance products and services in the United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services. The Retail segment provides property and casualty, employee benefits insurance products, personal insurance products, specialties insurance products, risk management strategies, loss control survey and analysis, consultancy, and claims processing services.