Prudential Financial Inc. Increases Stake in Aon plc $AON

Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Aon plc (NYSE:AON) by 34.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 37,345 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,490 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in AON were worth $13,323,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AON. Polen Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AON by 318.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AON in the first quarter valued at approximately $505,108,000. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in shares of AON in the first quarter valued at approximately $490,634,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in AON by 2.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,289,743 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,238,569,000 after buying an additional 511,292 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted 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 worth $1,251,391,000 after buying an additional 473,594 shares during the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on AON shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded AON from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $385.00 to $430.00 in a report on Thursday, September 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of AON to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of AON from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of AON from $427.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on AON from $451.00 to $448.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $416.56.

AON Price Performance

AON stock opened at $353.09 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $349.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $357.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a current ratio of 1.52. Aon plc has a 1 year low of $323.73 and a 1 year high of $412.97. The company has a market capitalization of $75.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.86.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.97 billion. AON had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 50.91%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.72 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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 issued a $0.745 dividend. This represents a $2.98 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. AON’s payout ratio is currently 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.