Employees Retirement System of Texas Decreases Position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. $AJG

Employees Retirement System of Texas lessened its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 174,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,100 shares during the quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas owned 0.07% of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. worth $45,029,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the third quarter valued at about $9,877,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 19.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 20,338,533 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,299,674,000 after acquiring an additional 3,330,205 shares during the period. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 10.2% in the third quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 65,889 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $20,398,000 after acquiring an additional 6,090 shares during the period. Factory Mutual Insurance Co. increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 241.4% in the third quarter. Factory Mutual Insurance Co. now owns 49,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $15,332,000 after acquiring an additional 35,000 shares during the period. Finally, Cincinnati Financial Corp purchased a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the third quarter valued at about $42,824,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $275.00 to $278.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $246.00 to $235.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group set a $240.00 target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $264.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 3,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.57, for a total transaction of $864,766.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 85,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,552,814.40. The trade was a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Christopher E. Mead sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.12, for a total transaction of $908,480.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 19,306 shares in the company, valued at $4,384,778.72. The trade was a 17.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of AJG opened at $204.21 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $211.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $231.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.04, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 1-year low of $190.75 and a 1-year high of $351.23.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $4.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.43 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 10.76% and a return on equity of 12.83%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.67 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 13.22 EPS for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 19th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s payout ratio is presently 45.31%.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Profile

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co is a global insurance brokerage and risk management firm headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Founded in 1927 by Arthur J. Gallagher, the company has grown from a regional broker into an international professional services organization that arranges insurance, provides consulting and designs risk-transfer solutions for commercial, industrial, public sector and individual clients.

The company’s core activities include property and casualty insurance brokerage, employee benefits consulting and administration, and a range of risk management services.