Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) Raises Dividend to $0.70 Per Share

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 6th will be given a dividend of 0.70 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, March 20th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 6th. This is a 7.7% increase from Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a payout ratio of 19.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. to earn $13.26 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.6%.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Performance

NYSE:AJG traded up $0.64 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $243.01. The stock had a trading volume of 760,011 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,948,081. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 52 week low of $236.34 and a 52 week high of $351.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $253.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $277.29.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.51 by ($0.19). Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 13.58% and a return on equity of 11.98%. The company had revenue of $3.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.26 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AJG. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $353.00 to $334.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $272.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a report on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $290.50.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Company Profile

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co is a global insurance brokerage and risk management firm headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Founded in 1927 by Arthur J. Gallagher, the company has grown from a regional broker into an international professional services organization that arranges insurance, provides consulting and designs risk-transfer solutions for commercial, industrial, public sector and individual clients.

The company’s core activities include property and casualty insurance brokerage, employee benefits consulting and administration, and a range of risk management services.