First Foundation Advisors Sells 14,041 Shares of Aon plc (NYSE:AON)

First Foundation Advisors cut its stake in Aon plc (NYSE:AON) by 40.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 20,429 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 14,041 shares during the quarter. First Foundation Advisors’ holdings in AON were worth $7,337,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AON by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,519,752 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,010,714,000 after buying an additional 88,361 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AON by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,949,919 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,773,165,000 after purchasing an additional 627,742 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in AON by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,564,824 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $921,182,000 after buying an additional 343,592 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of AON by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,329,221 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $824,498,000 after buying an additional 64,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its position in AON by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 2,123,862 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $762,796,000 after purchasing an additional 86,148 shares in the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on AON. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on AON from $390.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Redburn Atlantic raised AON to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on AON from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on AON from $411.00 to $414.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, 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 report on Wednesday, January 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $391.13.

AON Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:AON opened at $368.01 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $79.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.82. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $390.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $374.21. Aon plc has a 52-week low of $268.06 and a 52-week high of $412.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.58.

AON (NYSE:AON) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $4.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business posted $3.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Aon plc will post 17.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AON Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.675 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. AON’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.33%.

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.