Franklin Resources Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 24.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 109,166 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,574 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $11,565,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Synovus Financial Corp increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 6,157 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $638,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 652.8% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 259,205 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,854,000 after buying an additional 224,772 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the third quarter worth about $58,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 4.4% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 161,569 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $18,104,000 after buying an additional 6,805 shares during the period. Finally, SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Brown & Brown by 2.0% in the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,045 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $833,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Brown & Brown from $113.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Brown & Brown from $112.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $109.46.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BRO opened at $102.93 on Friday. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a one year low of $69.19 and a one year high of $114.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.05, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $107.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $101.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a current ratio of 1.73.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 17.12% and a net margin of 22.65%. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.16 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.74 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th were given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. This is a positive change from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.35%.

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.