Brokerages Set Willis Towers Watson Public Limited (NASDAQ:WTW) Price Target at $290.54

Shares of Willis Towers Watson Public Limited (NASDAQ:WTW) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $290.54.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Willis Towers Watson Public from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Willis Towers Watson Public from $248.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Roth Mkm increased their price target on shares of Willis Towers Watson Public from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup raised shares of Willis Towers Watson Public from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $236.00 to $315.00 in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Willis Towers Watson Public from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $236.00 to $298.00 in a report on Monday, February 12th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Willis Towers Watson Public

In other Willis Towers Watson Public news, CFO Andrew Jay Krasner sold 1,100 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.13, for a total transaction of $299,343.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,170 shares in the company, valued at $1,134,782.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WTW. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Willis Towers Watson Public by 4,811.5% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,472,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $355,217,000 after purchasing an additional 1,442,722 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Willis Towers Watson Public in the fourth quarter worth approximately $300,782,000. Baupost Group LLC MA grew its holdings in shares of Willis Towers Watson Public by 72.4% in the third quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA now owns 1,555,667 shares of the company’s stock worth $325,072,000 after purchasing an additional 653,300 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Willis Towers Watson Public by 9.0% in the third quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 5,410,018 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,130,477,000 after purchasing an additional 445,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Willis Towers Watson Public in the fourth quarter worth approximately $107,010,000. Institutional investors own 93.09% of the company’s stock.

Willis Towers Watson Public Stock Performance

NASDAQ WTW opened at $264.48 on Monday. Willis Towers Watson Public has a 1 year low of $195.29 and a 1 year high of $278.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45. The firm has a market cap of $27.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.40, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $270.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $250.76.

Willis Towers Watson Public (NASDAQ:WTW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $7.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.05 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $2.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.91 billion. Willis Towers Watson Public had a net margin of 11.12% and a return on equity of 15.70%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $6.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Willis Towers Watson Public will post 16.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Willis Towers Watson Public Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.88 per share. This is a boost from Willis Towers Watson Public’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. Willis Towers Watson Public’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.13%.

Willis Towers Watson Public Company Profile

Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company operates as an advisory, broking, and solutions company worldwide. It operates through two segments: Health, Wealth & Career and Risk & Broking. The company offers strategy and design consulting, plan management service and support, broking and administration services for health, wellbeing, and other group benefit program, including medical, dental, disability, life, voluntary benefits and other coverages; actuarial support, plan design, and administrative services for pension and retirement savings plans; retirement consulting services and solutions; and integrated solutions that consists of investment discretionary management, pension administration, core actuarial, and communication and change management assistance services.