Marshall Wace LLP Grows Stake in Aon plc $AON

Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Aon plc (NYSE:AON) by 694.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 241,619 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 211,188 shares during the quarter. Marshall Wace LLP’s holdings in AON were worth $86,200,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in AON by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,289,743 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,238,569,000 after buying an additional 511,292 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AON by 3.2% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,588,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,987,961,000 after acquiring an additional 173,722 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in AON by 15.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,507,656 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,251,391,000 after acquiring an additional 473,594 shares in the last quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in AON by 318.1% in the 1st quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC now owns 3,007,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,200,350,000 after acquiring an additional 2,288,397 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in AON by 13.2% in the 2nd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,706,904 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $965,715,000 after purchasing an additional 316,333 shares in the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AON shares. UBS Group reduced their target price on AON from $400.00 to $390.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $379.00 price objective (down previously from $420.00) on shares of AON in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $390.00 target price on shares of AON in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of AON to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of AON from $428.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AON has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $416.56.

AON Stock Performance

NYSE:AON opened at $344.66 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.08 billion, a PE ratio of 27.62, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $348.52 and its 200 day moving average is $356.72. Aon plc has a fifty-two week low of $323.73 and a fifty-two week high of $412.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35.

AON (NYSE:AON) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The financial services provider reported $3.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.97 billion. AON had a net margin of 15.96% and a return on equity of 48.88%. The business’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.72 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Aon plc will post 17.21 earnings per share for the current year.

AON Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a $0.745 dividend. This represents a $2.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. AON’s dividend payout ratio is 23.88%.

AON Company Profile

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.