Maj Invest Holding A S Sells 20,739 Shares of Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Maj Invest Holding A S lessened its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 4.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 492,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 20,739 shares during the period. Aflac accounts for about 2.4% of Maj Invest Holding A S’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Maj Invest Holding A S’s holdings in Aflac were worth $55,063,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Archer Investment Corp bought a new position in Aflac in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Groupe la Francaise bought a new stake in Aflac during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. bought a new stake in Aflac during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Aflac during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, Washington Trust Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Aflac during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 113,611 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.53, for a total transaction of $13,466,311.83. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 50,134,329 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,942,422,016.37. This trade represents a 0.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 713,662 shares of company stock worth $83,323,978. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AFL. Wolfe Research began coverage on Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $103.00 price target for the company. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and set a $110.00 price target (up from $101.00) on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Aflac from $125.00 to $120.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Aflac from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $101.00 price objective (up from $99.00) on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.20.

Aflac Trading Down 0.2%

Aflac stock opened at $121.79 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $116.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $115.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.12 and a quick ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.06 billion, a PE ratio of 13.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.56. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $105.43 and a 12-month high of $130.22.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.01). Aflac had a net margin of 26.91% and a return on equity of 13.27%. The company had revenue of $4.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. Aflac’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.15%.

Aflac Profile

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) is an insurance company specializing in supplemental health and life insurance. Through its policies, the company helps individuals and families manage expenses that may not be fully covered by major medical insurance, including deductibles, copayments and other out-of-pocket costs.

Aflac offers products such as accident, cancer, critical illness, hospital indemnity, dental and vision, disability, life and long-term care insurance. Many of its supplemental policies provide cash benefits directly to policyholders, who can generally use the funds according to their individual needs.