Petra Financial Advisors Inc. Purchases New Position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. $AJG

Petra Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $812,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. J.Safra Asset Management Corp increased its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 209.1% in the second quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Saudi Central Bank bought a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. Centennial Bank AR bought a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 1st quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 2,750.0% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 114 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the period. 85.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 12,855 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.60, for a total transaction of $3,825,648.00. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 85,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,569,792. This represents a 13.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.54, for a total value of $2,396,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 100,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,186,742.58. This represents a 7.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 29,855 shares of company stock worth $8,916,928 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AJG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $288.00 to $298.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $346.00 to $327.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $365.00 to $366.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $352.00 to $340.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.43.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Price Performance

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock opened at $279.14 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The stock has a market cap of $71.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.65 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $298.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $312.14. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 1 year low of $275.56 and a 1 year high of $351.23.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last issued its 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). The company had revenue of $3.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.20 billion. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 14.54%.The business’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.93%.

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.