Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 180 Shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. $AJG

Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 22.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 989 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $317,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 2.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,411,264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,499,185,000 after purchasing an additional 739,130 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 38.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 17,372,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,997,767,000 after purchasing an additional 4,815,007 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 4.9% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,959,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,021,798,000 after purchasing an additional 137,354 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 0.4% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,364,759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $816,409,000 after purchasing an additional 9,458 shares during the period. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 0.3% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 2,336,591 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $796,217,000 after purchasing an additional 7,594 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $365.00 to $366.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen raised Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $346.00 to $327.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.43.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Performance

Shares of AJG stock opened at $301.75 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $299.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $315.64. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 12 month low of $275.56 and a 12 month high of $351.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.86 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by ($0.03). Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 14.54% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The firm had revenue of $3.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 EPS for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.93%.

Insider Transactions at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

In other news, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 8,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.54, for a total transaction of $2,396,320.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 100,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,186,742.58. This trade represents a 7.35% 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, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 12,855 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.60, for a total value of $3,825,648.00. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 85,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,569,792. This trade represents a 13.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,855 shares of company stock worth $8,916,928 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

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.