State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System Has $73.30 Million Stock Position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. $AJG

State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) by 2.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 228,964 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,230 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System owned approximately 0.09% of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. worth $73,296,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AJG. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,096,542 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,954,625,000 after purchasing an additional 685,278 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 38.3% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 17,372,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,997,767,000 after purchasing an additional 4,815,007 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,959,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,021,798,000 after buying an additional 137,354 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 5.5% during the second quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 2,464,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $783,097,000 after acquiring an additional 128,071 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 4.2% in the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,381,835 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $762,473,000 after acquiring an additional 94,940 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $315.00 to $275.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 31st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $361.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $322.00 to $329.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $316.33.

Insider Activity

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 12,855 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.60, for a total transaction of $3,825,648.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 85,920 shares in the company, valued at $25,569,792. This represents a 13.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.54, for a total transaction of $2,396,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 100,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,186,742.58. The trade was a 7.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 37,105 shares of company stock worth $10,796,353. 1.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Price Performance

AJG stock opened at $248.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $63.87 billion, a PE ratio of 35.33 and a beta of 0.71. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $276.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $299.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 1 year low of $239.47 and a 1 year high of $351.23.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.51 by ($0.19). The business had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.34 billion. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 14.54%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.26 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.86%.

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 segments: Brokerage, Risk Management, and Corporate. The Brokerage segment consists of retail and wholesale insurance brokerage operations.