Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Cuts Position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. $AJG

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC lowered its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 84.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,705 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 19,687 shares during the period. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $802,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,825,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,429,000. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 118,467 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,924,000 after acquiring an additional 5,947 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 2,919.2% during the 2nd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 19,987 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,398,000 after purchasing an additional 19,325 shares during the period. Finally, Armistice Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the second quarter worth $412,000. 85.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $235.00 to $225.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $242.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $235.00 to $265.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $250.00 to $291.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $280.35.

Insider Activity

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, CAO Richard C. Cary sold 3,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $618,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,819 shares in the company, valued at $9,850,714. The trade was a 5.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE AJG opened at $254.36 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $221.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $225.41. 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 12-month low of $190.75 and a 12-month high of $316.71. The company has a market cap of $65.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.50.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last released its quarterly 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. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 10.76% and a return on equity of 12.83%. The business had revenue of $4.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.67 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 29.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 13.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.