Morgan Stanley Increases AON (NYSE:AON) Price Target to $327.00

AON (NYSE:AON) had its price target boosted by Morgan Stanley from $325.00 to $327.00 in a research note released on Monday, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. TD Cowen started coverage on AON in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. They set an outperform rating and a $390.00 price target for the company. UBS Group decreased their price objective on AON from $333.00 to $308.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on AON from $304.00 to $295.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 21st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on AON from $350.00 to $325.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on AON from $306.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $335.36.

AON Stock Performance

AON stock opened at $304.79 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $317.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $314.96. The company has a market capitalization of $60.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.42, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.86. AON has a fifty-two week low of $284.85 and a fifty-two week high of $347.37.

AON (NYSE:AON) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The financial services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.07 by ($0.18). The company had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.36 billion. AON had a negative return on equity of 1,150.40% and a net margin of 19.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.89 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that AON will post 15.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AON Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st 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 0.89%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. This is a boost from AON’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. AON’s payout ratio is currently 19.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AON news, CFO Christa Davies sold 20,618 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $311.40, for a total transaction of $6,420,445.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 159,570 shares in the company, valued at $49,690,098. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Christa Davies sold 20,618 shares of AON stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $311.40, for a total transaction of $6,420,445.20. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 159,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,690,098. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Lisa Stevens sold 13,000 shares of AON stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.26, for a total value of $4,098,380.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,073 shares in the company, valued at $3,175,613.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 74,532 shares of company stock worth $23,335,805 over the last quarter. 1.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of AON

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in AON by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 5,524,730 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,607,519,000 after buying an additional 22,346 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in AON by 1.1% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 4,479,652 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,452,390,000 after buying an additional 50,290 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in AON by 106,777.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,817,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $845,578,000 after buying an additional 2,814,643 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in AON by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,331,132 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $678,406,000 after buying an additional 179,238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of AON by 0.8% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,244,909 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $727,844,000 after purchasing an additional 18,500 shares during the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AON Company Profile

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.