Sei Investments Co. Boosts Stock Position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG)

Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 307.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 742,746 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 560,325 shares during the quarter. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $210,829,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Valley National Advisers Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 543.8% in the third quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 103 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. MRP Capital Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Financial Life Planners purchased a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. 85.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on AJG. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $320.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $308.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler raised shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $285.00 to $315.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. TD Cowen raised shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $295.00 to $377.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $341.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $310.43.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Down 0.7 %

NYSE:AJG opened at $332.02 on Friday. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a twelve month low of $230.08 and a twelve month high of $345.43. The company has a market cap of $84.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.92 and a beta of 0.75. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $316.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $299.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.10. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a return on equity of 16.47% and a net margin of 12.70%. Analysts anticipate that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 EPS for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This is an increase from Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s payout ratio is presently 39.88%.

Insider Activity at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, CAO Richard C. Cary sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.99, for a total value of $3,229,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 69,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,536,304.26. The trade was a 12.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David S. Johnson sold 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.06, for a total transaction of $104,669.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 44,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,422,812.98. This represents a 0.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,235 shares of company stock worth $7,478,224 over the last three months. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Company Profile

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.