Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Reduces Position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS cut its position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 50,467 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,075 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $5,149,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BRO. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter worth about $198,031,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 11,337.8% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,108,894 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,109,000 after buying an additional 1,099,199 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter valued at about $71,915,000. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 258.0% during the 3rd quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 646,574 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $66,985,000 after buying an additional 465,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,466,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $255,537,000 after buying an additional 371,980 shares in the last quarter. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BRO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $134.00 price target for the company. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.17.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 1.2 %

BRO stock opened at $118.38 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $111.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $107.69. The company has a market capitalization of $33.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.79 and a quick ratio of 1.79. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12 month low of $80.33 and a 12 month high of $121.25.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.10. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 20.68% and a return on equity of 17.81%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 5th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 5th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.34%.

About Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown, Inc is an insurance agency, wholesale brokerage, insurance program and service organization. It engages in the provision of insurance brokerage services and casualty insurance underwriting services. It operates through the following segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services.