Centennial Bank AR Sells 507 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Centennial Bank AR decreased its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 8,179 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 507 shares during the quarter. Centennial Bank AR’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $847,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BRO. Crewe Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 330.4% during the 2nd quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 297 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 298.5% in the 3rd quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 267 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 142.3% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 65.7% in the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 532 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO R. Andrew Watts sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total value of $250,800.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,872,802.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.51, for a total value of $14,071,226.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO R. Andrew Watts sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total transaction of $250,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,872,802.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BRO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $108.00 price objective for the company. Argus started coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $120.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $86.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $106.50.

Brown & Brown Trading Down 0.4 %

Brown & Brown stock opened at $104.17 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $104.20 and a 200-day moving average of $96.10. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a one year low of $69.13 and a one year high of $107.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The company has a market cap of $29.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.82.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.16 billion. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 22.65% and a return on equity of 17.12%. Brown & Brown’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. This is a boost from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 6th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.17%.

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.