Ellevest Inc. Raises Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Ellevest Inc. lifted its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 24.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,498 shares during the quarter. Ellevest Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $782,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AFL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at $349,699,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Aflac during the fourth quarter worth about $163,409,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Aflac by 22.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,296,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $754,700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,357,753 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in Aflac by 81.1% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 2,753,513 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $285,181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,232,683 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,340,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,310,640,000 after purchasing an additional 653,275 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Aflac Stock Performance

Aflac stock opened at $105.91 on Friday. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $85.43 and a 1-year high of $115.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market cap of $57.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $107.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $106.67.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.01). Aflac had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 28.76%. The business had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 37.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be given a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 36.25%.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.63, for a total transaction of $107,630.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 25,393 shares in the company, valued at $2,733,048.59. This represents a 3.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Charles D. Lake II sold 29,802 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.29, for a total value of $3,197,456.58. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 49,962 shares in the company, valued at $5,360,422.98. This represents a 37.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on AFL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $94.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Aflac from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.21.

About Aflac

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.