Aon plc $AON Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its Aon stake by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, selling 60,273 shares and still holding 1.35 million shares valued at about $476.4 million.
• Wall Street remains generally positive on Aon, with 13 analysts rating it a Buy and the consensus price target at $396, though Morgan Stanley slightly lowered its target to $370.
• Aon recently reported strong quarterly results, beating earnings and revenue estimates, and also raised its dividend to $0.82 per share from $0.75.

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its holdings in Aon plc (NYSE:AON - Free Report) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,350,069 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 60,273 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.63% of AON worth $476,412,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AON. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in AON by 28.4% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 14,704 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $5,246,000 after purchasing an additional 3,253 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its stake in AON by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 98,084 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $34,992,000 after purchasing an additional 8,216 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in AON by 35.2% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 292,210 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $104,249,000 after purchasing an additional 76,061 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in AON by 27.1% in the 2nd quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,734 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $995,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its stake in AON by 46.1% in the 2nd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 40,044 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $14,286,000 after purchasing an additional 12,631 shares in the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on AON shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on AON from $380.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on AON from $393.00 to $412.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $408.00 price objective on shares of AON in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Bank of America raised AON from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $398.00 to $397.00 in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on AON from $402.00 to $412.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, AON presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $396.00.

AON Stock Performance

AON stock opened at $324.73 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $322.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $334.77. The company has a market capitalization of $69.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.82, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.72. Aon plc has a fifty-two week low of $304.59 and a fifty-two week high of $381.00.

AON (NYSE:AON - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, May 2nd. The financial services provider reported $6.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.37 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.97 billion. AON had a return on equity of 43.50% and a net margin of 22.54%.AON's revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.67 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Aon plc will post 19.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AON Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 1st were given a $0.82 dividend. This is an increase from AON's previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 1st. AON's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.36%.

AON Profile

Aon plc is a global professional services firm that provides a broad suite of risk, retirement and health solutions to corporations, institutions and individuals. The company operates primarily as an insurance broker and risk adviser, helping clients identify, quantify and transfer risk across property, casualty, cyber and other areas. Aon also offers reinsurance brokerage and capital market solutions that connect insurers, reinsurers and corporate buyers.

In addition to traditional brokerage activities, Aon delivers consulting and outsourcing services in areas such as human capital, benefits, and retirement plan design and administration.

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