Should You Ignore AI Hype and Buy Aon Plc (AON)?
Forget AI: Legendary Value Investor Seth Klarman Is Buying These 10 Value Stocks in 2026. Aon Plc (NYSE:AON) ranks #5 (see Seth Klarman Is Buying These 5 Value Stocks in 2026).
Aon Plc (NYSE:AON) is one of the world’s largest insurance brokers, acting as a middleman between large businesses and insurance companies while also offering consulting services around employee benefits, pensions, and risk management. For the full year 2026, the company expects organic revenue growth of mid-single digits or better, and adjusted operating margin expansion of between 70 to 80 basis points — slower than the 90 basis points seen last year.
Aon Plc (NYSE:AON) is tapping the data center boom by expanding its Data Center Lifecycle Insurance Protection Program, with total capacity now reaching $2.5 billion.
Like many other professional services firms, AI has been impacting sentiment — new AI-based insurance tools such as Insurify are creating concerns that brokers could be disintermediated. However, Aon Plc (NYSE:AON) is also using AI internally to boost productivity and operations, launching tools like Aon Broker Copilot and Claims Copilot. In Q1 2026, operating margin improved to 34.1% from 30.9% in Q1 last year. Total debt however as of Q1 is $14.66 billion, and debt-to-EBITDA is approximately 2.6x — slightly above the historically safe range of 2.0–2.5x. The company’s $13.4 billion acquisition of NFP has been creating prolonged integration costs, with the forecasted $175 million in annual synergies not yet having been fully realized.
FPA Crescent Fund stated the following regarding Aon plc (NYSE:AON) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“Longtime holding Aon plc (NYSE:AON) is among the world’s leading providers of insurance/reinsurance brokerage and human resources solutions. The company reported slowing organic revenue growth for 2025, which led to a slew of sell side downgrades that pressured the stock price. Aon currently trades at an undemanding multiple of earnings and maintains a long track record of opportunistic acquisitions that have created value for shareholders over time.” (Click Here to Read the Letter in Detail).
While we acknowledge the potential of AON as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
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