Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Takes Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 84,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,395,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. ICONIQ Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 5.4% during the second quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC now owns 2,110 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $234,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 0.7% in the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 17,854 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,675,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 6,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $638,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance boosted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 33,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,694,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in Brown & Brown by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 28,750 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,291,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on BRO. Barclays raised their price objective on Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Citizens Jmp raised their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $73.00 price target (up from $65.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Brown & Brown from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.80.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

BRO opened at $72.05 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.58. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $69.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.87. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 52-week low of $53.81 and a 52-week high of $96.55.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.75% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.165 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 12th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is currently 20.82%.

Brown & Brown 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.