abrdn plc Raises Stake in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

abrdn plc raised its position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 91.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 119,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 57,119 shares during the period. abrdn plc’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $8,524,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fortitude Family Office LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Park Place Capital Corp lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 166.5% in the 4th quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 509 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 174.0% in the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 348 shares during the period. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 150.6% in the 3rd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 589 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares during the period. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter worth $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Brown & Brown

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total transaction of $12,406,005.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares in the company, valued at $3,220,113,605.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Two 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $87.10.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

NYSE:BRO opened at $81.45 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $84.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $77.06. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a twelve month low of $61.71 and a twelve month high of $87.99. The company has a market capitalization of $23.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.78.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion during 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

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