Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Shares Acquired by Quantinno Capital Management LP

Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 13.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 173,078 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 20,277 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP’s holdings in Aflac were worth $17,903,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Aflac by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,340,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,310,640,000 after purchasing an additional 653,275 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,465,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,286,042,000 after buying an additional 288,482 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Aflac by 22.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,296,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $754,700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,357,753 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Aflac during the fourth quarter valued at $349,699,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,226,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $333,768,000 after purchasing an additional 47,119 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Aflac Stock Down 0.3%

Aflac stock opened at $105.28 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.97, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $85.54 and a twelve month high of $115.50. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $107.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.55.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 28.76% and a return on equity of 16.20%. The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.66 EPS. Aflac’s revenue for the quarter was down 37.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be paid a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.20%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.79, for a total transaction of $106,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 26,096 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,786,791.84. The trade was a 3.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles D. Lake II sold 29,802 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 49,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,360,422.98. This represents a 37.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,802 shares of company stock worth $3,411,877 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Aflac from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target 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 shares of Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.21.

Aflac Company 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.