Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) saw an upside of 0.06% to close Friday at $233.08 after adding $0.14 on the day. The 5-day average trading volume is 936,960 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $237.63 in the past week and touched a new high 3 times within the past 5 days. An average of 776,925 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 722,022.
AJG’s 1-month performance is 3.44% or $10.96 on its low of $222.24 reached on 08/23/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $167.93 and high of $237.63, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 09/20/23. YTD, AJG has achieved 23.62% or $44.54 and has reached a new high 41 times. However, the current price is down -1.92% from the 52-week high price.
Insider Transactions
AJG stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Sep 19.HOWELL DOUGLAS K (VP & Chief Financial Officer) most recently sold 15,000 shares at $234.94 per share on Sep 19. This transaction cost the insider $3,524,100. General Counsel, Bay Walter D., sold 21,800 shares at a price of $232.00 on Sep 15. Then, on Sep 15, Director JOHNSON DAVID S sold 1,000 shares at a price of $230.15 per share. This transaction amounted to $230,145.
Valuation Metrics
AJG stock has a beta of 0.69. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 5.48 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 4.83, with the price to cash flow ratio at 31.05.
As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending June 29 was 0.61, while the total debt to equity was 0.72. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 91.99%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $3.73 billion against revenue of $8.55 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending June 29 this year, Net income and sales went down compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income shrunk -21.19% to $234.5 million, while revenue of $486.5 million was -107.46% off the previous quarter. Analysts expected AJG to announce $1.86 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted $1.9, representing a 2.20% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than $550.9 million. AJG stock balance sheet for the quarter ending June 29 shows that total liabilities totaled 43.93 billion, with total debt at $7.47 billion. Shareholders hold equity totaling $215.51 million.
Let’s look briefly at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 22 September was 58.55% to suggest the stock is trending Neutral, with historical volatility in this time period at 12.67%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $234.02, reflecting a +1.28% or $2.94 change from its current price. AJG is currently trading +3.66% above its 20-day SMA, +10.72% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by +9.00% and SMA200 by+18.42%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 70.39% and 81.17% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 3.13. The RSI (14) points at 59.44%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 65.40% with the period’s ATR at 3.18. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at 1.41 and 2.82 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG), BMO Capital Markets launched coverage with an Outperform rating. Analysts offering their rating for AJG stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Overweight. Currently, 0 brokerage advisors rate AJG as a “sell,”, while 3 advise that investors “Hold.” 2 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 1 rates the stock as overweight while 14 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is AJG’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $199.00 and a high of $265.00, with their median price target at $237.50. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) stock is $240.19.
