Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) PT Raised to $95.00 at Raymond James

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) had its target price hoisted by Raymond James from $90.00 to $95.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Raymond James’ price objective points to a potential upside of 8.87% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on BRO. StockNews.com raised Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $85.00 to $78.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $84.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $84.90.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BRO opened at $87.26 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $24.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Brown & Brown has a 1-year low of $55.42 and a 1-year high of $87.42. The business’s 50 day moving average is $82.10 and its 200-day moving average is $75.37.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for 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 business posted $0.50 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Brown & Brown will post 3.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of Brown & Brown 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 sale, the chairman now 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 the SEC website. 16.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Guggenheim Capital LLC raised its holdings in Brown & Brown by 142.7% during the 2nd quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 25,783 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,775,000 after acquiring an additional 15,159 shares during the period. Patton Fund Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the fourth quarter worth $4,765,000. Whittier Trust Co. increased its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 162,226 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,536,000 after purchasing an additional 17,479 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 28.7% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 277,331 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,369,000 after purchasing an additional 61,800 shares during the period. Finally, Comerica Bank bought a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the second quarter worth $328,020,000. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

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.