We recently published an article titled Why These 15 Insurance Stocks Are Skyrocketing So Far In 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) stands against the other insurance stocks.

Insurance stocks are back in the spotlight after Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder report for 2024. These stocks are not only benefiting from stable cash flows, but they are also benefiting from higher investment yields and premium growth as inflation trends have benefited insurers.

Moreover, AI and tech innovations are starting to spill over into many other industries, which include insurance. It is also benefiting from a demographic tailwind as the growing “silver segment” requires more life and health insurance.

As such, it is worth looking into some of the top performers in this industry. There are good reasons behind each of the stocks’ uptrends.

Insurance house, car and family health live concept. The insurance agent presents the toys that symbolize the coverage.

Methodology

For this article, I screened the top-performing defense stocks year-to-date. Stocks that I have covered recently will be excluded from this list.

I will also mention the number of hedge fund investors in these stocks. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

An insurance broker talking to a client, demonstrating the trust of their services.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 77

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) is an insurance brokerage, risk management, and consulting services company.

The stock is up significantly so far in 2025 as Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.51 for Q4 2024. This exceeded analysts' expectations of $2.06 by 22.3%. Revenue for the quarter was $2.68 billion, up 12% year-over-year, though slightly below the forecast of $2.71 billion.

Moreover, the adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 145 basis points to 31.4%. The company also completed several acquisitions this year. The acquisition of Assured Partners for $12.45 billion is expected to close in Q1 2025.

On top of all that, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG) announced a dividend increase to $0.65 starting on the 21st of March.

The consensus price target of $307 implies 5.62% downside.

AJG is up 14.69% year-to-date.

Overall AJG ranks 7th on our list of the insurance stocks that are skyrocketing so far in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of AJG as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AJG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

 

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.