Blair William & Co. IL Acquires 3,465 Shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG)

Blair William & Co. IL lifted its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 92,499 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,465 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $26,256,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AJG. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the fourth quarter worth approximately $344,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 29.2% during the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 10,988 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,119,000 after buying an additional 2,485 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 35.3% in the 4th quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 16,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,796,000 after buying an additional 4,410 shares during the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 28.6% in the fourth quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 15,629 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,436,000 after acquiring an additional 3,479 shares during the period. Finally, Foundation Wealth Management LLC PA bought a new position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the fourth quarter valued at about $721,000. 85.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AJG opened at $341.78 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $87.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.42 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $320.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $300.66. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a fifty-two week low of $230.08 and a fifty-two week high of $345.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 1.51.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.10. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a return on equity of 16.47% and a net margin of 12.70%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is an increase from Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.88%.

Insider Activity at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

In other news, CAO Richard C. Cary sold 10,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.99, for a total value of $3,229,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 69,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,536,304.26. The trade was a 12.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 7,510 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction on Friday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.59, for a total transaction of $2,505,260.90. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 90,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,029,771.80. The trade was a 7.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,235 shares of company stock valued at $7,478,224. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $285.00 to $315.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $320.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen upgraded Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $295.00 to $377.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $341.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $313.20.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Profile

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co engages in the provision of insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party claims settlement and administration services. It operates through the following segments: Brokerage, Risk Management, and Corporate. The Brokerage segment consists of retail and wholesale insurance brokerage operations.