Aflac Incorporated $AFL Shares Purchased by ICONIQ Capital LLC

ICONIQ Capital LLC lifted its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 41.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,115 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,506 shares during the period. ICONIQ Capital LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $569,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Jump Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 167.7% in the first quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 6,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $700,000 after purchasing an additional 3,947 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in Aflac by 6.6% during the first quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 4,002 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $439,000 after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. Groupe la Francaise acquired a new position in Aflac during the first quarter worth about $34,000. AlphaQuest LLC raised its position in Aflac by 91.8% during the first quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 20,831 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,316,000 after acquiring an additional 9,969 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allstate Corp raised its position in Aflac by 17.3% during the first quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 18,806 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,091,000 after acquiring an additional 2,770 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $106.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of Aflac in a report on Thursday, August 14th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $111.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered their price target on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $109.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total transaction of $102,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 25,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,575,019.85. This trade represents a 3.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Price Performance

Aflac stock opened at $108.3520 on Monday. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $96.95 and a 52-week high of $115.50. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $103.08 and a 200-day moving average of $104.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.57, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 15.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.61%.

Aflac announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, August 12th that permits the company to buyback 100,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.