Aon plc Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.68 (NYSE:AON)

Aon plc (NYSE:AON) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, October 11th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.675 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%.

AON has a dividend payout ratio of 15.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect AON to earn $17.41 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.5%.

AON Price Performance

NYSE:AON traded up $1.47 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $355.15. 584,731 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,188,236. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.92, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 2.42. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $342.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $314.21. AON has a 1 year low of $268.06 and a 1 year high of $360.95. The company has a market cap of $77.15 billion, a PE ratio of 28.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.08 by ($0.15). AON had a return on equity of 252.81% and a net margin of 18.00%. The company had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.74 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. AON’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that AON will post 15.22 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on AON shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of AON from $353.00 to $379.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of AON from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of AON from $338.00 to $384.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $335.00 price target on shares of AON in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of AON from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $313.00 to $380.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $347.06.

About AON

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.