The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Sells 1,886,289 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. $BRO

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company reduced its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 92.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 155,448 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,886,289 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $10,137,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BRO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Brown & Brown by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,634,847 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,999,497,000 after purchasing an additional 303,955 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,886,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,425,546,000 after purchasing an additional 407,006 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.6% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,608,720 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,017,847,000 after purchasing an additional 246,172 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,403,814 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,068,284,000 after purchasing an additional 282,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,957 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $631,495,000 after buying an additional 118,225 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on BRO shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $73.00 price objective (up from $65.00) on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Citizens Jmp increased their target price on Brown & Brown from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Brown & Brown from $69.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Brown & Brown from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $79.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.47.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BRO opened at $71.80 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $24.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.65, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.60. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $53.81 and a twelve month high of $98.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a 50 day moving average of $63.93 and a 200 day moving average of $66.32.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.01). The business 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 12th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.