94,904 Shares in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Purchased by Quantbot Technologies LP

Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 94,904 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,832,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Crewe Advisors LLC grew its stake in Brown & Brown by 330.4% during the second quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 297 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Brown & Brown in the third quarter worth $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Brown & Brown by 142.3% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 65.7% in the second 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. 71.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Argus assumed coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $120.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Brown & Brown from $98.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Brown & Brown from $112.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Brown & Brown from $108.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. One equities research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brown & Brown presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $107.42.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Stock Down 0.3 %

Brown & Brown stock opened at $111.75 on Tuesday. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $69.13 and a fifty-two week high of $114.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.45, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $106.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.20.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 22.65% and a return on equity of 17.12%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.16 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.74 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. This is a boost from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is presently 16.35%.

Brown & Brown 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.