Corient Private Wealth LLC Increases Holdings in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 543,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 17,532 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $60,032,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Navalign LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Aflac during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Activest Wealth Management grew its position in Aflac by 95.6% in the 4th quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SHP Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aflac news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 166,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.38, for a total value of $18,655,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 51,723,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,812,641,978. This represents a 0.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 1,041,856 shares of company stock worth $119,920,378 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $115.50 on Friday. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $96.95 and a 12 month high of $119.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $58.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.11, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.61. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $115.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $112.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.80 by ($0.05). Aflac had a return on equity of 13.88% and a net margin of 25.60%.The company had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.66 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 27.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 27.70%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. Weiss Ratings raised Aflac from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Mizuho set a $104.00 target price on shares of Aflac in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Evercore upgraded shares of Aflac from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $112.27.

Aflac Profile

Aflac Incorporated (American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus) is a provider of supplemental insurance products designed to help policyholders manage out-of-pocket health care and living expenses. The company underwrites a range of individual and group policies that typically pay cash benefits directly to insureds when covered events occur, enabling greater financial flexibility for medical treatment, hospital stays, critical illness, and related costs. Aflac’s product mix includes supplemental health insurance, life insurance and other specialty coverages intended to complement primary medical plans.

Founded in the mid-20th century and headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, Aflac distributes its products through a combination of employer-sponsored programs, independent brokers and agents, and direct marketing.