Huntington National Bank Acquires 703 Shares of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)

Huntington National Bank lifted its holdings in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) by 26.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,338 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 703 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Brown & Brown were worth $346,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. bought a new stake in Brown & Brown in the second quarter worth $1,512,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 12.4% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 251,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,855,000 after purchasing an additional 27,879 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 4,174 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $365,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the period. Natixis raised its position in Brown & Brown by 220.5% in the 1st quarter. Natixis now owns 62,032 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,430,000 after purchasing an additional 42,677 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Brown & Brown by 162.3% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 488,483 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,675,000 after purchasing an additional 302,240 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BRO shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Brown & Brown from $113.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Brown & Brown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 2nd. Argus began coverage on shares of Brown & Brown in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $120.00 price target on the stock. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Brown & Brown from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Brown & Brown from $112.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $106.50.

Brown & Brown Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:BRO opened at $110.05 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $31.47 billion, a PE ratio of 29.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Brown & Brown, Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.13 and a 12-month high of $114.08. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $105.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.98.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.03. Brown & Brown had a net margin of 22.65% and a return on equity of 17.12%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Brown & Brown, Inc. will post 3.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Increases Dividend

The company 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. This is an increase from Brown & Brown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 6th. Brown & Brown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.35%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Brown & Brown news, Chairman Hyatt J. Brown sold 134,640 shares of the firm’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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 17.02% of the company’s stock.

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.