Truist Financial Reiterates Buy Rating for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG)

Truist Financial restated their buy rating on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $280.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock.

AJG has been the topic of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a buy rating to a hold rating and lowered their price target for the company from $279.00 to $233.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $270.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $249.00 to $246.00 and set an underperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 26th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. They issued a market perform rating and a $249.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Raymond James lowered Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a strong-buy rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $255.77.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of AJG opened at $250.06 on Tuesday. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 12-month low of $186.88 and a 12-month high of $256.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.68. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $242.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $237.63.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The financial services provider reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.02. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 9.63%. The firm had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 10.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. This is an increase from Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, VP Thomas Joseph Gallagher sold 12,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.65, for a total transaction of $2,925,233.85. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 322,797 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,712,707.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, VP Thomas Joseph Gallagher sold 12,309 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.65, for a total value of $2,925,233.85. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 322,797 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,712,707.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David S. Johnson sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.04, for a total value of $117,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 45,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,540,693.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 29,016 shares of company stock valued at $7,176,180. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $302,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Legato Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 43.7% in the 4th quarter. Legato Capital Management LLC now owns 13,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,035,000 after buying an additional 4,102 shares in the last quarter. Guinness Atkinson Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Guinness Atkinson Asset Management Inc now owns 3,913 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $892,000 after buying an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank bought a new stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 2nd quarter valued at $511,910,000. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,940,318 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,963,026,000 after buying an additional 262,187 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.53% of the company’s stock.

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.