Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.07 EPS

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The financial services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 billion. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 21.09%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share.

Brown & Brown Price Performance

Shares of BRO traded down $0.41 on Thursday, hitting $81.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 96,808 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,326,567. The company has a market capitalization of $23.32 billion, a PE ratio of 25.27, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Brown & Brown has a fifty-two week low of $61.71 and a fifty-two week high of $87.99. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $84.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.02.

Brown & Brown Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. Brown & Brown’s payout ratio is currently 16.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on BRO shares. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Brown & Brown from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Brown & Brown from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Brown & Brown from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Brown & Brown from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Two 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $87.10.

Insider Transactions at Brown & Brown

In other news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 144,323 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $12,406,005.08. Following 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 17.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.