Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Now Covered by Analysts at Argus

Investment analysts at Argus began coverage on shares of Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $120.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock. Argus’ price target indicates a potential upside of 17.41% from the company’s current price.

BRO has been the subject of several other research reports. UBS Group raised their target price on Brown & Brown from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Brown & Brown from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $94.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Monday, August 12th. 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 report on Friday, July 26th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $94.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Brown & Brown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $101.67.

Brown & Brown Stock Performance

Shares of BRO stock opened at $102.21 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $100.88 and its 200 day moving average is $92.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.45, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.83. Brown & Brown has a 12 month low of $66.73 and a 12 month high of $106.02. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 17.00% and a net margin of 21.95%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.68 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Brown & Brown will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was 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 through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO R. Andrew Watts sold 2,500 shares of Brown & Brown stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total value of $250,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 88,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,872,802.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.51, for a total transaction of $14,071,226.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Crewe Advisors LLC increased its stake in Brown & Brown by 330.4% in the 2nd quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 297 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Brown & Brown in the first quarter worth $32,000. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp bought a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter valued at $36,000. First PREMIER Bank bought a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Intelligent Financial Strategies purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown during the 1st quarter valued at $45,000. Hedge funds and other 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.