Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.60

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 23rd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.60 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, December 20th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.83%.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has increased its dividend payment by an average of 6.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a payout ratio of 21.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. to earn $11.34 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.2%.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE AJG traded up $1.71 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $288.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 610,085 shares, compared to its average volume of 843,972. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a fifty-two week low of $218.63 and a fifty-two week high of $301.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The company has a market cap of $63.13 billion, a PE ratio of 58.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.72. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $289.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $268.62.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $2.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.24 by $0.02. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 10.41% and a return on equity of 19.25%. The business had revenue of $2.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.90 EPS. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 10.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 7,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.68, for a total value of $1,992,760.00. Following the sale, 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 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, General Counsel Walter D. Bay sold 6,335 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.06, for a total value of $1,799,520.10. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,053 shares in the company, valued at $8,536,855.18. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 7,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.68, for a total value of $1,992,760.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 75,963 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,625,146.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 44,145 shares of company stock worth $12,622,660 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AJG. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $273.00 to $288.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $241.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $260.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank Of America (Bofa) raised their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $255.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $271.00 to $293.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $287.00.

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.