What Do Hedge Funds Think of Aon PLC (AON)?

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We have processed the filings of the more than 700 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their September 30 holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider Aon PLC (NYSE:AON) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.

Aon PLC (NYSE:AON) investors should be aware of an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU), and Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ) to gather more data points.

To most traders, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, old financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at present, Our experts hone in on the moguls of this club, around 700 funds. These money managers command most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by tracking their inimitable equity investments, Insider Monkey has come up with numerous investment strategies that have historically defeated the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points a year for a decade in their back tests.

With all of this in mind, let’s go over the new action regarding Aon PLC (NYSE:AON).

Hedge fund activity in Aon PLC (NYSE:AON)

Heading into Q4, a total of 34 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 21% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management has the biggest position in Aon PLC (NYSE:AON), worth close to $1.1797 billion, amounting to 5.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Mason Hawkins of Southeastern Asset Management, with a $818.7 million position; the fund has 6.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other professional money managers that are bullish comprise Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC, Jonathan Bloomberg’s BloombergSen and Gavin M. Abrams’s Abrams Bison Investments.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Winton Capital Management, managed by David Harding, created the most outsized position in Aon PLC (NYSE:AON). Winton Capital Management had $19.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Muller’s PDT Partners also initiated a $14.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new AON positions are Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, and Andre F. Perold’s HighVista Strategies.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Aon PLC (NYSE:AON) but similarly valued. We will take a look at LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU), Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ), and ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN). This group of stocks’ market valuations match AON’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 42 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.92 billion. That figure was $3.37 billion in AON’s case. Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) is the least popular one with only 32 bullish hedge fund positions. Aon PLC (NYSE:AON) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard STZ might be a better candidate to consider a long position.