Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) stock fell -3.72% on Tuesday to $206.61 against a previous-day closing price of $214.59. With 1.09 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 0.99 million shares. During the session, the Insurance Brokers company that operates in wider Financial sector, reached to the highest price of $213.51 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $206.11. The 52-week range on AJG shows that it touched its highest point at $219.23 and its lowest point at $148.24 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $224.21. With its current market cap of 43.93 billion, AJG has annualized dividend of $2.20 while the current yield stands at 1.06%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.70.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of AJG was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -4.79%, but this was down by -0.39% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 10.91% while six-month performance rose 6.32%. The stock gained 33.30% in the past year, while it has gained 9.58% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for AJG yields 5.39 with Next year EPS estimates of 9.93. For the next quarter, that number is 1.91. This implies an EPS growth rate of 18.60% for this year and 12.60% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 10.60% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 12.80%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 212.80 million AJG shares are outstanding with a float of 208.85 million shares on hand for trading. On Apr 27, 2023, short shares totaled 2.15 million, which was 1.00% higher than short shares on Mar 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. J. Patrick Gallagher Jr. as the firm’s Chairman, Pres & CEO, Mr. Douglas K. Howell CPA serves as its Corp. VP & CFO.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 86.23% of AJG’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 53.19% of AJG, in contrast to 34.07% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 3.05%. As the largest shareholder in AJG with 11.91% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 25,263,056 shares worth 25,263,056. A second-largest stockholder of AJG, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 12,094,304 shares, controlling over 5.70% of the firm’s shares. Capital Research & Management Co is the third largest shareholder in AJG, holding 9,761,923 shares or 4.60% stake. With a 3.56% stake in AJG, the Government Pension Fund – Global is the largest stakeholder. A total of 7,544,098 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which owns about 3.10% of AJG stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 6,565,089 shares valued at 1.37 billion. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund holds 2.34% of the stake in AJG, owning 4,953,962 shares worth 1.03 billion.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for AJG since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With AJG analysts setting a high price target of $247.00 and a low target of $172.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $225.53. Based on these targets, AJG could surge 19.55% to reach the target high and fall by -16.75% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 9.16% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded AJG stock several times over the past three months with 35 Buys and 46 Sells. In these transactions, 435,792 shares were bought while 332,890 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 57 while that of sell transactions has risen to 83 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 660,380 while 556,411 shares were sold.
