Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Purchases 1,489 Shares of Aon plc (NYSE:AON)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its position in shares of Aon plc (NYSE:AON - Free Report) by 5.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 28,022 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd's holdings in AON were worth $11,183,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in AON by 196.1% during the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 2,416 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $868,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of AON in the fourth quarter valued at $567,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AON during the 4th quarter valued at $215,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of AON by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,433 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $513,000 after acquiring an additional 468 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norden Group LLC raised its position in shares of AON by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 656 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $236,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AON. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on AON from $420.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of AON from $430.00 to $415.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of AON to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of AON from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $408.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on AON from $394.00 to $409.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $397.27.

AON Stock Performance

AON stock traded up $3.32 on Thursday, reaching $354.87. 316,696 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,156,956. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $357.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $370.71. The stock has a market cap of $76.63 billion, a PE ratio of 30.23, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.84. Aon plc has a twelve month low of $292.37 and a twelve month high of $412.97.

AON (NYSE:AON - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The financial services provider reported $5.67 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $6.04 by ($0.37). AON had a return on equity of 52.71% and a net margin of 15.58%. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.66 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 16.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Aon plc will post 17.21 EPS for the current year.

AON Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st were issued a $0.745 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 1st. This is an increase from AON's previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.84%. AON's dividend payout ratio is 25.38%.

About AON

Aon Plc engages in the provision of risk, health, and wealth solutions. It focuses on risk capital including claim management, reinsurance, risk analysis, management, retention, and transfer; and human capital involving analytics, health and benefits, investments, pensions and retirement, talent and rewards, and workplace wellbeing.