Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.07 EPS

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) announced its earnings results on Tuesday. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 21.09% and a return on equity of 16.43%. Brown & Brown’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BRO traded down $0.41 during trading on Thursday, hitting $81.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 96,808 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,326,567. The company has a 50-day moving average of $84.30 and a 200-day moving average of $77.02. Brown & Brown has a 12 month low of $61.71 and a 12 month high of $87.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market cap of $23.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.78.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on BRO. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America lowered shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $84.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $87.10.

Brown & Brown Company 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.