Hedge Funds Are Betting On Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO)

At the moment, there are many methods shareholders can use to track their holdings. Two of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to look at the world of equities. Obviously, there are plenty of stimuli for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to examine the newest info surrounding Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO).

How are hedge funds trading Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 25 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 39% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group had the most valuable position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO), worth close to $152.8 million, accounting for 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. On Citadel Investment Group’s heels is Donald Chiboucis of Columbus Circle Investors, with a $49.5 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

Now, specific money managers have jumped into Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) headfirst. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, established the biggest position in Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO). Citadel Investment Group had 152.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors also made a $49.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group, and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

How have insiders been trading Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO)?

Insider buying is most useful when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO). These stocks are Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC), Aon PLC (NYSE:AON), Willis Group Holdings PLC (NYSE:WSH), Erie Indemnity Company (NASDAQ:ERIE), and Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG). This group of stocks belong to the insurance brokers industry and their market caps are similar to BRO’s market cap.