Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC Decreases Position in Aon plc (NYSE:AON)

Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC lowered its position in shares of Aon plc (NYSE:AON) by 2.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 99,208 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,673 shares during the quarter. AON makes up about 1.6% of Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s holdings in AON were worth $29,125,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AON. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in AON by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,661,672 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,894,053,000 after purchasing an additional 64,500 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of AON by 2.5% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 12,552,569 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,685,183,000 after buying an additional 309,702 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of AON by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 5,524,730 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,607,519,000 after buying an additional 22,346 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of AON by 1.2% in the second quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 4,405,780 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,293,449,000 after buying an additional 52,099 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sustainable Growth Advisers LP grew its stake in AON by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 2,805,199 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $936,151,000 after acquiring an additional 127,173 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on AON shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $335.00 price target on shares of AON in a report on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on AON from $287.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of AON from $312.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of AON from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $313.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on AON from $300.00 to $296.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AON presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $337.27.

AON Stock Performance

NYSE:AON opened at $346.97 on Friday. Aon plc has a 52 week low of $268.06 and a 52 week high of $353.54. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $329.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $311.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.92. The company has a market cap of $75.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.92.

AON (NYSE:AON) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The financial services provider reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.08 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.74 billion. AON had a return on equity of 252.81% and a net margin of 18.00%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Aon plc will post 15.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AON Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a $0.675 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. AON’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.16%.

AON Profile

Aon plc, a professional services firm, provides a range of risk and human capital solutions worldwide. It offers commercial risk solutions, including retail brokerage, specialty solutions, global risk consulting and captives management, and affinity programs; and health solutions, such as health and benefits brokerages, and health care exchanges.