North Dakota State Investment Board Acquires New Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

North Dakota State Investment Board bought a new stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 9,555 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $762,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BRO. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 38.3% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 33,444 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,132,000 after purchasing an additional 9,264 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth increased its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 1,824.7% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 53,103 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,888,000 after purchasing an additional 50,344 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 27.1% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,045 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $116,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 60.9% during the second quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 933 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $103,000 after purchasing an additional 353 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BRO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $81.00 target price (down from $90.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $69.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Thursday. They set a “market outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Brown & Brown has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.73.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 1.2%

Brown & Brown stock opened at $57.42 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $19.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.66. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 1-year low of $53.81 and a 1-year high of $113.83. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 17.94% and a return on equity of 12.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.29 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 11th were paid a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 11th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director H Palmer Proctor, Jr. purchased 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $57.10 per share, for a total transaction of $114,200.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 47,621 shares in the company, valued at $2,719,159.10. The trade was a 4.38% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 13.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.