Willis Towers Watson Public Ltd. (WLTW) announced a 4.4% increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.71 per share from $0.68. The global advisory, broking and solutions company said that the new dividend will be paid on Jan. 15, 2021 to shareholders of record as of Dec. 31, 2020.
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Willis Towers’ annual dividend of $2.84 per share now reflects a dividend yield of 1.39%.
On Nov. 9, private equity firm Cinven, in partnership with GIC Private Ltd., Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund agreed to acquire Willis Towers’ wholesale insurance broker, Miller. Though the company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, Bloomberg reported the deal price at around $896 million. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021. (See WLTW stock analysis on TipRanks)
Following the transaction announcement, Wells Fargo analyst Elyse Greenspan maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $248 (21.3% upside potential). The analyst said, “We expect the Willis shares should trade up with the insurance brokerage sector, as the sale was expected and is just around breakeven to EPS (assuming the proceeds are used to buy back stock).”
Currently, the Street has a cautiously optimistic outlook on the stock. The Moderate Buy analyst consensus is based on 2 Buys and 5 Holds. The average price target stands at $223.67 and implies upside potential of about 9.4% to current levels. Shares were up by 1.2% year-to-date.
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