Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) Price Target Increased to $290.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) had its price target increased by Royal Bank of Canada from $282.00 to $290.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $253.00 to $252.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $274.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday. Argus upped their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $264.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an underperform rating and issued a $240.00 target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a hold rating and issued a $255.00 target price (down previously from $280.00) on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $263.00.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Trading Down 2.4 %

AJG opened at $253.55 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a market cap of $55.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $249.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $242.29. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a fifty-two week low of $209.39 and a fifty-two week high of $266.39.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The financial services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.41 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $3.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.18 billion. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 18.94%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.03 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 10.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 21st. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s payout ratio is 48.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.41, for a total transaction of $3,974,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 80,952 shares in the company, valued at $20,109,286.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.41, for a total value of $3,974,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 80,952 shares in the company, valued at $20,109,286.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Richard C. Cary sold 3,395 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $254.00, for a total transaction of $862,330.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 38,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,731,756. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 53,165 shares of company stock worth $13,629,049. 1.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AJG. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 473.9% in the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,656 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $832,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 1.7% in the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 77,111 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $17,576,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd raised its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 111.5% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 11.5% in the third quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 26,779 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,104,000 after purchasing an additional 2,758 shares during the period. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 0.5% in the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 95,765 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,828,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. 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.