Willis Towers Watson Public Limited (NASDAQ:WTW) Short Interest Update

Willis Towers Watson Public Limited (NASDAQ:WTW - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,410,000 shares, an increase of 38.2% from the December 15th total of 1,020,000 shares. Approximately 1.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 670,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Institutional Trading of Willis Towers Watson Public

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Willis Towers Watson Public by 1.9% in the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,373 shares of the company's stock worth $884,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Willis Towers Watson Public by 12.2% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 737,464 shares of the company's stock valued at $193,332,000 after buying an additional 80,452 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in Willis Towers Watson Public by 1.7% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 15,025 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,019,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Willis Towers Watson Public by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 1,915 shares of the company's stock worth $502,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Willis Towers Watson Public by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 8,099 shares of the company's stock worth $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 917 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.09% of the company's stock.

Willis Towers Watson Public Stock Up 2.8 %

NASDAQ WTW traded up $8.77 during trading on Thursday, reaching $322.12. 486,165 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 516,856. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $314.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $294.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.44 billion, a PE ratio of -44.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.74. Willis Towers Watson Public has a fifty-two week low of $242.54 and a fifty-two week high of $334.99.

Willis Towers Watson Public (NASDAQ:WTW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.28 billion. Willis Towers Watson Public had a positive return on equity of 18.57% and a negative net margin of 7.36%. Willis Towers Watson Public's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.24 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Willis Towers Watson Public will post 16.75 EPS for the current year.

Willis Towers Watson Public Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.88 dividend. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. Willis Towers Watson Public's payout ratio is presently -48.35%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on WTW. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Willis Towers Watson Public from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $352.00 to $382.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Roth Mkm lifted their price target on shares of Willis Towers Watson Public from $315.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Willis Towers Watson Public from $378.00 to $387.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Raymond James raised Willis Towers Watson Public from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $365.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Willis Towers Watson Public from $278.00 to $302.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $333.64.

About Willis Towers Watson Public

Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company operates as an advisory, broking, and solutions company worldwide. It operates through two segments: Health, Wealth & Career and Risk & Broking. The company offers strategy and design consulting, plan management service and support, broking and administration services for health, wellbeing, and other group benefit program, including medical, dental, disability, life, voluntary benefits and other coverages; actuarial support, plan design, and administrative services for pension and retirement savings plans; retirement consulting services and solutions; and integrated solutions that consists of investment discretionary management, pension administration, core actuarial, and communication and change management assistance services.