Scotia Capital Inc. Acquires 776 Shares of Aon plc (NYSE:AON)

Scotia Capital Inc. grew its stake in Aon plc (NYSE:AON) by 7.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 10,670 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 776 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc.’s holdings in AON were worth $3,833,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in AON by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,519,752 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,010,714,000 after buying an additional 88,361 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AON by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,949,919 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,773,165,000 after acquiring an additional 627,742 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in AON by 15.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,564,824 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $921,182,000 after purchasing an additional 343,592 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in AON by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,329,221 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $824,498,000 after purchasing an additional 64,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of AON by 86.7% during the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 2,067,551 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $742,582,000 after purchasing an additional 960,204 shares in the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on AON. Redburn Atlantic raised AON to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on AON from $411.00 to $414.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on AON from $396.00 to $416.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of AON from $394.00 to $409.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of AON from $372.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $393.87.

AON Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:AON opened at $375.26 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.06 billion, a PE ratio of 29.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $390.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $374.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.58, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. Aon plc has a one year low of $268.06 and a one year high of $412.97.

AON (NYSE:AON) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $4.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.25 by $0.17. AON had a return on equity of 70.84% and a net margin of 16.91%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.89 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Aon plc will post 17.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AON Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.745 per share. This represents a $2.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. This is an increase from AON’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. AON’s payout ratio is presently 21.33%.

AON 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.