Aflac Incorporated $AFL Shares Sold by Advisory Services Network LLC

Advisory Services Network LLC cut its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 12.9% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 109,194 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 16,228 shares during the quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $10,850,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs acquired a new position in Aflac during the 1st quarter worth $2,070,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Aflac during the first quarter worth about $551,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its stake in Aflac by 14.5% in the second quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 222,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,485,000 after purchasing an additional 28,190 shares in the last quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its holdings in Aflac by 4.8% in the second quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 140,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,857,000 after buying an additional 6,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Aflac by 16.7% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,167,886 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $439,545,000 after buying an additional 594,971 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other news, EVP Frederic Jean Guy Simard sold 1,722 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.50, for a total value of $193,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 1,364 shares in the company, valued at $153,450. This represents a 55.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Steven Kent Beaver sold 3,452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.26, for a total value of $377,165.52. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 43,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,792,143.60. This represents a 7.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 26,274 shares of company stock worth $2,948,167 over the last 90 days. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AFL shares. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $104.00 price target (up from $102.00) on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Aflac in a report on Monday, December 8th. Piper Sandler set a $125.00 price target on shares of Aflac and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $113.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $111.00.

Aflac Stock Performance

AFL opened at $110.10 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The business’s 50 day moving average is $110.02 and its 200-day moving average is $106.62. The stock has a market cap of $57.70 billion, a PE ratio of 14.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.66. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $96.95 and a twelve month high of $115.83.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter. Aflac had a return on equity of 14.97% and a net margin of 23.55%.The firm had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter. On average, analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.61 per share. This is a boost from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Aflac’s payout ratio is 30.29%.

Aflac Profile

Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. The company operates through Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S. segments. The Aflac Japan segment offers cancer, medical, nursing care, work leave, GIFT, and whole and term life insurance products, as well as WAYS and child endowment plans under saving type insurance products in Japan.