C WorldWide Group Holding A S Reduces Stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. $AJG

C WorldWide Group Holding A S lessened its stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 63.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,381 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,843 shares during the quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S’s holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $732,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AJG. Dearborn Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC now owns 133,936 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,661,000 after purchasing an additional 7,946 shares during the period. Professional Advisory Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Professional Advisory Services Inc. now owns 78,448 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,302,000 after purchasing an additional 8,539 shares during the period. Seizert Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the fourth quarter worth $3,571,000. GuoLine Advisory Pte Ltd bought a new stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the fourth quarter valued at $13,561,000. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 154,404 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,965,000 after buying an additional 44,824 shares during the period. 85.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, CAO Richard C. Cary sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $618,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,819 shares in the company, valued at $9,850,714. This represents a 5.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Up 3.2%

Shares of AJG opened at $255.72 on Friday. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 1 year low of $190.75 and a 1 year high of $316.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $220.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $225.47. The firm has a market cap of $65.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.50.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $4.47 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $4.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.73 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.67 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 29.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 13.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s payout ratio is currently 45.31%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group raised their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $250.00 to $291.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday. Citigroup upgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $280.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $271.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.35.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Company 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.