Invesco Ltd. Raises Stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,166,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 46,235 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd. owned about 1.26% of Brown & Brown worth $461,925,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BRO. Parnassus Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter valued at $899,139,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 5,124,203 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the second quarter valued at $433,740,000. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 2nd quarter worth about $171,163,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in 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 worth $813,624,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050,350 shares during the period. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BRO. UBS Group lowered their target price on Brown & Brown from $120.00 to $106.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 17th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $97.00 price objective (down previously from $135.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $98.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $102.00 to $84.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.69.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BRO opened at $79.57 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $27.17 billion, a PE ratio of 23.82, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $85.23 and a 200 day moving average of $96.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a one year low of $76.17 and a one year high of $125.68.

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

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

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

Brown & Brown Company Profile

Brown & Brown, Inc is an insurance agency, wholesale brokerage, insurance program and service organization. It engages in the provision of insurance brokerage services and casualty insurance underwriting services. It operates through the following segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services.