Carmel Capital Partners LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Carmel Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 65.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,162 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,250 shares during the quarter. Carmel Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $225,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Brown & Brown by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 16,764,258 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $962,604,000 after acquiring an additional 218,939 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Brown & Brown by 187.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,491,448 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $540,728,000 after buying an additional 6,186,323 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Brown & Brown by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,287,929 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $303,385,000 after buying an additional 108,521 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in Brown & Brown by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 5,236,392 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $372,360,000 after acquiring an additional 29,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its position in Brown & Brown by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,405,935 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $234,465,000 after acquiring an additional 68,778 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Brown & Brown

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total transaction of $12,406,005.08. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 17.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BRO. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Bank of America downgraded Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Citigroup increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Brown & Brown currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.80.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BRO traded up $1.04 during trading on Friday, reaching $82.17. The stock had a trading volume of 1,405,884 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,116,438. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a one year low of $59.91 and a one year high of $87.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock has a market cap of $23.45 billion, a PE ratio of 26.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.78. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $84.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $76.72.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 15.46% and a net margin of 20.44%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Profile

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.