Aon (AON) Ties Up to Boost Prowess to Meet Clients' ESG Needs

Aon plc AON recently inked a multifaceted data and digital partnership with the global investments company, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation BK, so that both the companies can make use of their innovative capabilities to devise solutions to meet the constantly changing needs of clients.

First and foremost, the partnership entails the combined utilization of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data and analytics prowess coupled with the unique data sets of Aon and BNY Mellon. This collective utilization tends to address the ESG needs of global clients. Given the evolving requirements of clients, after the completion of its primary endeavor, the tie-up will also look forward to upgrading solutions in the areas of digital assets and data and analytics. A powerful data and analytics portfolio has always remained the priority of AON management to strengthen the insurance broker.

With the help of improved analytics, data sets and actionable insights into the ESG portfolio-level exposure developed due to the tie-up, clients will be empowered to arrive at enhanced investment strategy decisions. Both partners will also look forward to extending Aon's proprietary ESG fund ratings to asset owners for helping them gain a better understanding of the procedure followed by asset managers to integrate ESG into one’s investments, operations and organizational processes. Therefore, corporations, institutional asset managers and investors will greatly benefit from the latest collaboration.

The recent initiative on the part of Aon is expected to improve net-zero reporting transparency, which, in turn, will simplify the portfolio management and research process of the insurance broker. Meanwhile, BK, boasting of holding unique knowledge about ESG trends, seems to be the perfect partner to complement AON’s endeavor to establish an ESG-focused ecosystem for its clients.  

Also, tie-ups similar to the latest one seem to be opportune considering the increasing importance of companies to integrate ESG policies and consequently manage ESG risks. These capabilities are required to sustain the competitive scope of organizations. Meanwhile, investors also remain increasingly inclined to invest in companies that have a robust ESG program in place. The robust ESG program can attract massive pools of capital from investors and boost the long-term growth prospects of companies.

To capitalize on the prevailing scenario, Aon delivers a varied suite of consulting and advisory solutions for navigating ESG issues for benefiting clients.

Shares of Aon have rallied 39.2% in a year compared with the industry’s growth of 11.2%. AON currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). 

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Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks in the insurance space are Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. AJG and Brown & Brown, Inc. BRO. While Arthur J. Gallagher sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Brown & Brown carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The bottom line of Arthur J. Gallagher outpaced estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average being 8.76%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Arthur J. Gallagher’s 2022 earnings suggests an improvement of 41.1%, while the same for revenues suggests growth of 7.5% from the corresponding year-ago reported figures. The consensus mark for AJG’s 2022 earnings has moved 28% north in the past 30 days.

Brown & Brown’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average surprise being 17.39%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Brown & Brown’s 2022 earnings suggests an improvement of 5.9%, while the same for revenues suggests growth of 11.7% from the corresponding year-ago reported figures. BRO has a Growth Score of B.

Shares of Arthur J. Gallagher and Brown & Brown have rallied 32.5% and 44%, respectively, in a year.

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