Aon plc (NYSE:AON) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Aon plc (NYSE:AON) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,570,000 shares, a growth of 6.5% from the December 15th total of 4,290,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,020,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.5 days. Currently, 2.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AON has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America boosted their price objective on AON from $345.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of AON from $415.00 to $411.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of AON from $379.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of AON from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $377.00 to $410.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on AON from $413.00 to $432.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AON has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $370.87.

AON Stock Down 0.6 %

AON stock traded down $2.28 on Friday, hitting $365.83. 859,980 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 713,661. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $368.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $349.01. The firm has a market cap of $79.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.66. AON has a 1 year low of $268.06 and a 1 year high of $395.33.

AON Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd 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 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. AON’s dividend payout ratio is 22.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Lisa Stevens sold 1,275 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $387.68, for a total transaction of $494,292.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,131,291.36. This trade represents a 13.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Mindy F. Simon sold 650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.34, for a total value of $256,321.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 1,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $716,121.44. This trade represents a 26.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of AON

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AON. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in AON during the third quarter valued at $336,375,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its stake in AON by 150.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 96,321 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,326,000 after purchasing an additional 57,847 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in AON by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,844,121 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,059,977,000 after purchasing an additional 32,417 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in AON by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 165,741 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $57,345,000 after purchasing an additional 20,084 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retireful LLC bought a new position in shares of AON in the third quarter worth approximately $759,000. 86.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.