Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) Short Interest Update

Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,590,000 shares, a growth of 15.1% from the March 15th total of 2,250,000 shares. Currently, 1.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,330,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on BRO shares. Bank of America lowered shares of Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.80.

Brown & Brown Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:BRO traded down $0.11 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $80.92. The stock had a trading volume of 1,111,098 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,333,067. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $23.09 billion, a PE ratio of 26.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.78. Brown & Brown has a 12-month low of $58.71 and a 12-month high of $87.99. The company’s 50 day moving average is $84.15 and its 200-day moving average is $76.58.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 20.44% and a return on equity of 15.46%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.50 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Brown & Brown will post 3.44 EPS for the current year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 2nd were given a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Brown & Brown

In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chairman now directly owns 37,460,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,220,113,605.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 16.43% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Clear Street Markets LLC lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 93.7% in the 1st quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 461 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Park Place Capital Corp lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp purchased a new stake in Brown & Brown in the 1st quarter worth approximately $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Brown & Brown Company 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.