Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Hits New 52-Week High – What’s Next?

Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $113.29 and last traded at $110.90, with a volume of 52088 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $107.60.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BRO. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays started coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $108.00 price target on the stock. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Argus assumed coverage on Brown & Brown in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $120.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Brown & Brown from $98.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Brown & Brown has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $106.50.

Brown & Brown Stock Up 1.9 %

The firm has a market cap of $32.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.69, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.82. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $96.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.73.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 17.12% and a net margin of 22.65%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 6th. This is a positive change from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio is 16.35%.

Insider Activity at Brown & Brown

In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.51, for a total transaction of $14,071,226.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Brown & Brown

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Crewe Advisors LLC grew its position in Brown & Brown by 330.4% in the second quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 297 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the period. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Brown & Brown in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 323 shares during the period. 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.