Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) Upgraded at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) from an underperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note released on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $286.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $292.00.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler upgraded Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $285.00 to $315.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $312.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $271.00 to $293.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $313.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $300.00 to $308.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $304.07.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Price Performance

NYSE:AJG opened at $286.09 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $71.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.76. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $291.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $285.94. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a one year low of $227.08 and a one year high of $316.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.26. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 19.12%. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.00 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 10.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s payout ratio is 45.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.70, for a total value of $1,992,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 75,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,626,666.10. This represents a 8.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Christopher E. Mead sold 2,800 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $287.00, for a total transaction of $803,600.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 14,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,211,438. This represents a 16.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,305,478 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,462,392,000 after purchasing an additional 580,134 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,932,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,513,199,000 after acquiring an additional 47,656 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,490,728 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,541,044,000 after acquiring an additional 79,429 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 13.6% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,196,992 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $899,538,000 after purchasing an additional 383,130 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 2.7% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,640,938 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $425,511,000 after purchasing an additional 42,841 shares during the period. 85.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Company Profile

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance and reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party property/casualty claims settlement and administration services to entities and individuals worldwide. It operates in Brokerage and Risk Management segments. The Brokerage segment offers retail and wholesale insurance and reinsurance brokerage services; assists retail brokers and other non-affiliated brokers in the placement of specialized and hard-to-place insurance; and acts as a brokerage wholesaler, managing general agent, and managing general underwriter for distributing specialized insurance coverages to underwriting enterprises.