Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co Decreases Holdings in Aon plc $AON

Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co decreased its holdings in Aon plc (NYSE:AON) by 37.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,855 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,970 shares during the period. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co’s holdings in AON were worth $3,181,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AON. Dodge & Cox grew its stake in shares of AON by 126.6% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 7,852,456 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,770,975,000 after buying an additional 4,387,773 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AON in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,155,981,000. Viking Global Investors LP purchased a new stake in AON during the 3rd quarter valued at about $504,424,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its position in AON by 40,219.8% during the 3rd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 846,715 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $301,922,000 after acquiring an additional 844,615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Southpoint Capital Advisors LP purchased a new position in AON in the 4th quarter worth approximately $229,372,000. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Darren Zeidel sold 1,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.05, for a total transaction of $725,497.50. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 13,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,986,958.20. The trade was a 12.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 4,450 shares of company stock worth $1,659,242 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AON has been the subject of several recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on AON from $416.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of AON from $396.00 to $412.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of AON from $406.00 to $419.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of AON from $383.00 to $387.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on shares of AON from $426.00 to $437.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $410.00.

AON Stock Performance

AON stock opened at $357.88 on Tuesday. Aon plc has a fifty-two week low of $304.59 and a fifty-two week high of $382.34. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $341.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $332.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 1.54. The stock has a market cap of $75.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.73, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.71.

AON (NYSE:AON) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The financial services provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.80 by $0.01. AON had a return on equity of 42.13% and a net margin of 22.27%.The firm had revenue of $4.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.49 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Aon plc will post 19.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AON Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 3rd will be issued a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. AON’s dividend payout ratio is 18.08%.

AON Company Profile

Aon plc is a global professional services firm that provides a broad suite of risk, retirement and health solutions to corporations, institutions and individuals. The company operates primarily as an insurance broker and risk adviser, helping clients identify, quantify and transfer risk across property, casualty, cyber and other areas. Aon also offers reinsurance brokerage and capital market solutions that connect insurers, reinsurers and corporate buyers.

In addition to traditional brokerage activities, Aon delivers consulting and outsourcing services in areas such as human capital, benefits, and retirement plan design and administration.