Citrine Capital LLC Buys New Position in Aon plc (NYSE:AON)

Citrine Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Aon plc (NYSE:AON) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 3,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,113,000. AON makes up approximately 0.8% of Citrine Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of AON by 0.4% in the third 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AON by 0.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,322,177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,489,690,000 after purchasing an additional 38,447 shares during the period. Veritas Asset Management LLP increased its holdings in shares of AON by 41.6% in the third quarter. Veritas Asset Management LLP now owns 3,010,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,041,623,000 after purchasing an additional 883,761 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AON by 15.6% in the third quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,316,218 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $455,398,000 after purchasing an additional 177,956 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AON by 1.0% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,206,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $417,528,000 after purchasing an additional 11,922 shares during the period. 86.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AON. Evercore ISI upgraded AON from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $407.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on AON from $325.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on AON from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on AON from $390.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on AON from $379.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $386.21.

AON Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:AON opened at $384.67 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $365.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $355.80. The stock has a market cap of $83.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.93. Aon plc has a 1 year low of $268.06 and a 1 year high of $395.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.58, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a current ratio of 1.40.

AON (NYSE:AON) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $4.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.89 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Aon plc will post 17.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AON Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. AON’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AON

In other news, insider Lisa Stevens sold 1,275 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $387.68, for a total transaction of $494,292.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,131,291.36. This represents a 13.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Mindy F. Simon sold 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was 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 owns 1,816 shares in the company, valued at approximately $716,121.44. This represents a 26.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.