Stifel Financial Corp Trims Stock Holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG)

Stifel Financial Corp cut its stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 0.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 169,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 894 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp’s holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $47,670,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 15.7% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 109,639 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,450,000 after purchasing an additional 14,860 shares during the period. MQS Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 3rd quarter valued at $749,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 29.9% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 161,028 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,756,000 after acquiring an additional 37,070 shares in the last quarter. Marsico Capital Management LLC grew its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 316.9% in the 2nd quarter. Marsico Capital Management LLC now owns 11,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,968,000 after acquiring an additional 8,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OneAscent Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the third quarter worth about $617,000. 85.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AJG. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $254.00 to $293.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Barclays increased their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $300.00 to $308.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America lifted their target price on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $271.00 to $293.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $312.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $313.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $291.64.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Price Performance

Shares of AJG opened at $296.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 1-year low of $218.63 and a 1-year high of $316.72. The stock has a market cap of $65.10 billion, a PE ratio of 56.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.74. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $293.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $280.90.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a return on equity of 19.12% and a net margin of 10.40%. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.00 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 10.12 EPS for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, President Michael Robert Pesch sold 7,100 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.20, for a total value of $2,103,020.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 33,267 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,853,685.40. This trade represents a 17.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.68, for a total value of $1,992,760.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 75,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,625,146.84. This trade represents a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 23,900 shares of company stock valued at $6,892,280. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

About Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

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.