Aon plc (NYSE:AON) to Issue $0.68 Quarterly Dividend

Aon plc (NYSE:AON) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, July 12th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st will be given a dividend of 0.675 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.91%.

AON has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.6% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. AON has a payout ratio of 15.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect AON to earn $17.46 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.5%.

AON Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE:AON traded up $1.33 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $298.13. 1,650,593 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,294,059. The company’s 50 day moving average is $289.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $301.83. AON has a twelve month low of $268.06 and a twelve month high of $344.68. The company has a market capitalization of $64.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.91.

AON (NYSE:AON) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The financial services provider reported $5.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.86 by ($0.20). The firm had revenue of $4.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.14 billion. AON had a negative return on equity of 1,083.00% and a net margin of 19.04%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.17 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that AON will post 15.41 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America downgraded AON from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $345.00 to $306.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on AON from $294.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of AON in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of AON from $353.00 to $379.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of AON from $300.00 to $296.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $321.36.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Lester B. Knight acquired 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $276.61 per share, for a total transaction of $2,766,100.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 139,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,448,790. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

About AON

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.