B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Sells 385 Shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 385 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $3,122,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AJG. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC bought a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 543.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 103 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. raised its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 89.7% during the 2nd quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 110 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Institutional investors own 85.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $312.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $269.00 to $274.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut 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 research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $260.00 to $292.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $296.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, VP Christopher E. Mead sold 2,800 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $287.00, for a total transaction of $803,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,211,438. The trade was a 16.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 7,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.68, for a total transaction of $1,992,760.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 75,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,625,146.84. The trade was a 8.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,800 shares of company stock valued at $4,789,260 over the last three months. 1.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Trading Up 1.2 %

AJG stock opened at $284.59 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $293.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $282.31. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a fifty-two week low of $218.63 and a fifty-two week high of $316.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market cap of $71.09 billion, a PE ratio of 54.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.74.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 19.12%. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.00 earnings per share. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 10.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s payout ratio is 45.71%.

About Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance and reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party property/casualty claims settlement and administration services to entities and individuals worldwide. It operates in Brokerage and Risk Management segments. The Brokerage segment offers retail and wholesale insurance and reinsurance brokerage services; assists retail brokers and other non-affiliated brokers in the placement of specialized and hard-to-place insurance; and acts as a brokerage wholesaler, managing general agent, and managing general underwriter for distributing specialized insurance coverages to underwriting enterprises.