Brown & Brown reports revenue gains for fourth quarter, full-year 2015

Fourth quarter revenues at Brown & Brown Inc. rose 3.0% to $404.7 million while full-year revenues grew 5.4% to $1.66 billion, the company said in its earnings release Monday after close of trading.

Fourth quarter net income more than doubled to $58.1 million as expenses declined 12.7% to $309.5 million for the quarter.

Organic revenue growth for the fourth quarter was 2.5%, and investment income increased 50.0% to $300,000.

Brown acquired 4 agencies in the fourth quarter with annual revenues of some $17 million, according to president and CEO J. Powell Brown, speaking in a Tuesday call with analysts.

He said the company will continue to be acquisitive.

“We will continue to look for organizations that fit culturally and make sense financially as the acquisition marketplace remains very active and prices remain high.”

For the year, Mr. Brown said the company added $54 million of annual acquired revenue.

Mr. Brown also addressed the rate environment with analysts on the call.

“With 2015 in the books and another year without a major hurricane hitting the U.S., there’s a lot of excess capital out there,” said Mr Brown.

“Rates for admitted markets remain generally flat to down 5% with the only exception being commercial auto which is flat to up 5%, depending on the loss history of the account,” said Mr. Brown.

“We continue to see excess and surplus rates lines down 5% to 15% with catastrophe/property down the most,” he added.

Full-year net income increased 17.7% to $243.6 million on the back of the increase in revenues even as expenses for the year inched up 1.8% to $1.26 billion.

Organic revenue growth for the full-year was 2.6% and yearly investment income was up 42.9% to $1.0 million.