Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Raises Position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. $AJG

Key Points

• Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 210.1% in Q2, now holding approximately 368,437 shares valued at $117.9 million.
• Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. recently reported Q2 earnings with $2.33 EPS, missing estimates of $2.36, while revenue reached $3.18 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share, resulting in an annual yield of 0.9% and a payout ratio of 36.93%.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG - Free Report) by 210.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 368,437 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 249,616 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned approximately 0.14% of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. worth $117,944,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. IFM Investors Pty Ltd lifted its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 8.4% in the second quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 47,638 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $15,250,000 after buying an additional 3,685 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 0.6% in the second quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,501 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,761,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 1.7% in the second quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 111,979 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $35,847,000 after buying an additional 1,893 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 2,685.7% during the second quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 8,942 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,863,000 after acquiring an additional 8,621 shares during the period. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 1.9% during the second quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 2,597 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $826,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.53% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

In other news, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 3,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.78, for a total transaction of $899,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 114,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $34,407,849.06. The trade was a 2.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 12,855 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.60, for a total value of $3,825,648.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 85,920 shares in the company, valued at $25,569,792. The trade was a 13.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Performance

AJG traded up $0.42 on Monday, hitting $300.07. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,442,633 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,528,034. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $298.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $318.01. The firm has a market cap of $76.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.62 and a beta of 0.72. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 12 month low of $275.56 and a 12 month high of $351.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.29 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 EPS for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 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%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AJG shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $352.00 to $372.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. UBS Group boosted their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $322.00 to $329.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $288.00 to $298.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $369.00 to $365.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $317.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $330.93.

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.