Intact Investment Management Inc. Invests $57,000 in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG)

Intact Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $57,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AJG. Huntington National Bank grew its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 10.6% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $422,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the period. Curi RMB Capital LLC grew its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 13.9% during the third quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC now owns 3,501 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $985,000 after buying an additional 427 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 5.4% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 43,116 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,132,000 after buying an additional 2,190 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 5.9% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 8,180 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after buying an additional 457 shares during the period. Finally, Seelaus Asset Management LLC grew its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 0.7% during the third quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 5,481 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,542,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $300.00 to $308.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $320.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $295.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $313.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Two research 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, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $307.93.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Price Performance

Shares of AJG opened at $325.35 on Friday. 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 has a market cap of $82.87 billion, a PE ratio of 49.90 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $312.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $298.17. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 forecast that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 EPS for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s payout ratio is 39.88%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Christopher E. Mead sold 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.61, for a total transaction of $877,569.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 14,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,440,499.14. The trade was a 16.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David S. Johnson sold 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.06, for a total transaction of $104,669.50. Following the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,725 shares of company stock worth $4,972,964 in the last 90 days. Corporate 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 business segments: Brokerage, Risk Management, and Corporate. The Brokerage segment consists of retail and wholesale insurance brokerage operations.