Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Shares Sold by Motley Fool Asset Management LLC

Motley Fool Asset Management LLC cut its stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 148,485 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,367 shares during the quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $10,559,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BRO. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Park Place Capital Corp grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 166.5% during the 4th quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 509 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 174.0% during the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the period. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC boosted its holdings in Brown & Brown by 150.6% during the 3rd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 589 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares during the period. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Brown & Brown during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. 71.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BRO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $85.00 to $78.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.10.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of 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 SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 17.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of BRO stock traded up $0.14 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $82.27. The company had a trading volume of 1,608,686 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,345,231. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.02. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 52-week low of $61.71 and a 52-week high of $87.99. The stock has a market cap of $23.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.31, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 21.09%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is 16.00%.

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.