Wealthspire Advisors LLC Purchases 831 Shares of Aon plc (NYSE:AON)

Wealthspire Advisors LLC raised its position in Aon plc (NYSE:AON) by 8.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,742 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 831 shares during the period. Wealthspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in AON were worth $3,126,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AON. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in AON by 1.1% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 4,479,652 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,452,390,000 after acquiring an additional 50,290 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in shares of AON by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,331,132 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $678,406,000 after purchasing an additional 179,238 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in AON by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,244,909 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $727,844,000 after purchasing an additional 18,500 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in AON by 3.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,523,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $494,094,000 after buying an additional 55,703 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of AON by 0.5% in the third quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 1,311,515 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $425,219,000 after buying an additional 7,093 shares during the period. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on AON. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of AON from $294.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on AON from $325.00 to $315.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on AON from $300.00 to $289.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Bank of America reduced their price target on AON from $378.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of AON from $333.00 to $308.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AON presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $329.69.

AON Price Performance

NYSE AON traded down $4.54 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $283.81. 1,848,020 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,142,855. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $312.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $311.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.24, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.90. Aon plc has a fifty-two week low of $268.06 and a fifty-two week high of $347.37.

AON (NYSE:AON) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The financial services provider reported $5.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.86 by ($0.20). AON had a negative return on equity of 1,083.00% and a net margin of 19.04%. The business had revenue of $4.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.17 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Aon plc will post 15.59 earnings per share for the current year.

AON Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.675 per share. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. This is a boost from AON’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. AON’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.16%.

Insider Activity at AON

In other AON news, CFO Christa Davies sold 20,618 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $311.40, for a total transaction of $6,420,445.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 159,570 shares in the company, valued at $49,690,098. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other AON news, CFO Christa Davies sold 20,618 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $311.40, for a total transaction of $6,420,445.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 159,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,690,098. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Lisa Stevens sold 13,000 shares of AON stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.26, for a total value of $4,098,380.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,175,613.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 74,532 shares of company stock worth $23,335,805. Insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

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.