Proficio Capital Partners LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 19.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 948 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $269,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AJG. M&T Bank Corp increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 29,959 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,504,000 after buying an additional 1,886 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 30,593 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,684,000 after acquiring an additional 392 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 18.3% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 15,486 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,396,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 106,991 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,369,000 after purchasing an additional 6,239 shares during the period. Finally, Keybank National Association OH grew its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 35.8% during the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 4,028 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,143,000 after purchasing an additional 1,061 shares in the last quarter. 85.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AJG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $341.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $320.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $308.00 to $314.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $352.00 price target for the company. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $295.00 to $377.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $313.20.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Price Performance

AJG opened at $336.56 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 1.51. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $319.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $300.37. The firm has a market cap of $85.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.62 and a beta of 0.75. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 1 year low of $230.08 and a 1 year high of $345.43.

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

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.88%.

Insider Activity at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

In related news, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 7,510 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.59, for a total transaction of $2,505,260.90. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 90,020 shares in the company, valued at $30,029,771.80. The trade was a 7.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sherry S. Barrat sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.33, for a total transaction of $760,825.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,031,487.89. This trade represents a 13.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,235 shares of company stock worth $7,478,224 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. 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.