BID TerminalOpen complete report
Research library Insurance

Company report

Aon plc AON

Three-pass checkedFresh as companies report

The bet you're really making is that companies keep paying Aon a cut of every insurance policy it arranges for them, that the cut keeps growing while insurance itself gets cheaper, and that the $17 billion Aon just borrowed to buy USI, a broker to mid-sized American businesses, gets paid down the way the last acquisition was.

Right now the core is fine and the market hates the deal: fees grew 5% last quarter while property insurance prices fell by double digits, buybacks stop until the debt is repaid, and at 17 times earnings the stock costs less than it has at any year-end since 2013.

Key data

Price$303.86
52-week range$303.59 to $382.34
P/E, trailing / 202616.7x / 16.2x
EV/EBITDA, trailing12.6x

AON · price with moving averages

Daily · 6MWeekly · 3Y
$270$307$345$382$419 Sep '23Apr '24Nov '24Jul '25Feb '26Sep '26 BID
EMAs82140

Source: market data.

The business

Aon does not insure anything. It stands between a company that needs coverage and the insurers who write it, runs the auction, and keeps a fee whether the winning insurer makes money on the risk or not. A treasurer renewing a $200 million property program calls Aon, not each insurer. Commercial Risk, that brokerage business, is about half of revenue. Reinsurance does the same job for insurers, Health places benefit plans, Wealth advises pensions. One model: a toll on the world's insurance premiums, collected by the firm with the broadest data on pricing risk. The tension is that the toll is a percentage of premium, so when prices fall the same policy pays Aon less, and 2026 is the first year of falling prices after the hardest market in a generation.

Inside the complete Company report

  1. 01The business
  2. 02The numbers
  3. 03Management
  4. 04How it fails or surprises you
  5. 05The shape of the payoff
  6. 06Closing thoughts
  7. 07Methodology

Continue with AON

Get the complete Company report free.

Choose this as your free complete report. No card required.

Read the complete report

More company research

View all research
CorVel Corporation CRVLThe bet you're really making is that companies keep hiring CorVel to handle medical bills when a worker gets hurt, and that CorVel keeps using software to lower those bills before anyone pays them. The right tail is the same bill-review engine gaining business from ordinary health plans. Right now it is going well: the biggest quarter in the company's history, sales up 11% to $259.9 million, profit up 18%, and more of each revenue dollar reaching gross profit than a year ago. You pay about 30 times trailing earnings, near the middle of its range over the last twelve years. Company report Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited FFH.TOThe bet you're really making is that Prem Watsa keeps growing what each Fairfax share is worth, out of the insurance premiums he collects and the tens of billions he invests, faster than the stock has climbed. You're betting the insurance itself keeps paying out less in claims than it takes in, so the investment gains add to the pile instead of filling a hole. Right now it is going well: profit stayed near a record, though one soft quarter was a reminder those gains arrive in lumps, not a straight line. You pay about eight times last year's earnings and a little over what the company is worth on paper, the most the market has paid for Fairfax in years. Company report Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK-BThe bet you're really making is that Berkshire Hathaway, the group of about sixty businesses Buffett built, a railroad, power utilities, GEICO car insurance, plus a mountain of stocks and a large cash reserve, keeps growing its worth faster than the market now that Greg Abel runs it. You're betting the insurers keep collecting more in premiums than they pay out in claims, and that the cash pile gets spent well. Right now it is going fine: the businesses earned more and revenue rose 10% last quarter, though the headline profit swings wildly because it now counts every move in the stock portfolio. You pay 1.5 times what the company is worth on paper, the most it has cost by that measure in twelve years. Company report Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. MMCThe bet you're really making is that Marsh keeps collecting fees for placing insurance policies and selling business advice to large corporations year after year, earning a percentage of every premium placed and a fee for every consulting engagement, with that revenue stream growing as clients buy more coverage and expand their use of benefits and strategy consulting. You're betting the fee revenue compounds mid-to-high single digits organically through the cycle because it comes from client count and spend, not just from insurance premium inflation. Right now fee revenue is growing but growth has slowed from prior years, and the stock has fallen 26% from its high as the market prices in that deceleration. You pay about 21 times earnings, the cheapest valuation the stock has carried in a decade and well below the roughly 31 times investors pay for its closest peer. Company report