AON (AON) Set to Announce Earnings on Friday

AON (NYSE:AON) is scheduled to be releasing its earnings data before the market opens on Friday, April 26th. Analysts expect AON to post earnings of $5.82 per share for the quarter. Investors that are interested in participating in the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

AON (NYSE:AON) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The financial services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.07 by ($0.18). AON had a negative return on equity of 1,150.40% and a net margin of 19.17%. The firm had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.89 earnings per share. AON’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect AON to post $16 EPS for the current fiscal year and $17 EPS for the next fiscal year.

AON Price Performance

Shares of AON opened at $311.86 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $317.78 and a 200-day moving average of $314.53. The company has a market cap of $61.91 billion, a PE ratio of 24.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.86. AON has a one year low of $284.85 and a one year high of $347.37.

AON Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.675 per share. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. This is an increase from AON’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. AON’s payout ratio is 19.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AON

In other news, CFO Christa Davies sold 20,618 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $49,690,098. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other AON news, Director Lester B. Knight bought 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $301.97 per share, for a total transaction of $15,098,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 134,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,463,980. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Christa Davies sold 20,618 shares of AON stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $311.40, for a total value of $6,420,445.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 159,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,690,098. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 74,532 shares of company stock valued at $23,335,805 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on AON shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on AON from $342.00 to $325.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 5th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of AON in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $390.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of AON from $325.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on AON from $318.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on AON from $350.00 to $310.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $334.69.

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.