Cerity Partners LLC Buys 18,869 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 53.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 54,252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,869 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $5,620,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in BRO. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 0.7% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,804,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,144,893,000 after acquiring an additional 86,824 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 0.7% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,915,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $405,638,000 after purchasing an additional 28,180 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 24.6% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,489,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $311,979,000 after purchasing an additional 687,783 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 105.1% in the second quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 2,068,333 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $184,930,000 after purchasing an additional 1,059,711 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 8.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,553,396 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $138,899,000 after purchasing an additional 114,688 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BRO. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $113.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $98.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Argus initiated coverage on Brown & Brown in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $120.00 target price for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Brown & Brown from $112.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $107.42.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE BRO opened at $113.20 on Thursday. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.13 and a 12-month high of $114.15. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $106.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The company has a market cap of $32.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.82.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.03. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 22.65% and a return on equity of 17.12%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.16 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. Brown & Brown’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This is a boost from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.35%.

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.