Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) Position Reduced by Prosperity Consulting Group LLC

Prosperity Consulting Group LLC cut its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 9.5% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,814 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,239 shares during the period. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC’s holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $4,079,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AJG. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 81.7% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 108,589 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,823,000 after acquiring an additional 2,681 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 12,344 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,504,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. DnB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 23.8% in the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 45,399 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,887,000 after acquiring an additional 8,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allstate Corp purchased a new stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 4th quarter worth about $1,977,000. 85.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 10,500 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.17, for a total value of $3,540,285.00. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 91,175 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,741,474.75. The trade was a 10.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David S. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.04, for a total value of $342,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 45,323 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,502,278.92. This represents a 2.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $8,528,080 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $346.00 to $327.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $266.00 to $265.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $372.00 to $371.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $326.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $322.31.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AJG opened at $315.15 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 1.44. The firm has a market cap of $80.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.61 and a beta of 0.71. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $322.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $323.00. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 52 week low of $267.00 and a 52 week high of $351.23.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.57 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.85 billion. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a return on equity of 14.83% and a net margin of 14.39%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.45 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 6th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.63%.

About Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co engages in the provision of insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party claims settlement and administration services. It operates through the following segments: Brokerage, Risk Management, and Corporate. The Brokerage segment consists of retail and wholesale insurance brokerage operations.