Aflac Incorporated $AFL Shares Sold by VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al lowered its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 4.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 550,978 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 27,000 shares during the quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al owned about 0.10% of Aflac worth $61,544,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 64.4% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,570 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,507,000 after buying an additional 5,708 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC grew its position in Aflac by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 4,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $455,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. increased its stake in Aflac by 72.0% during the first quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 28,331 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,150,000 after acquiring an additional 11,857 shares during the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Aflac by 1.7% in the first quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,965 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,886,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the period. Finally, Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 67,957 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,556,000 after purchasing an additional 4,111 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Frederic Jean Guy Simard sold 1,722 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.50, for a total transaction of $193,725.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 1,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $153,450. The trade was a 55.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 786 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.75, for a total transaction of $89,407.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 24,829 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,824,298.75. This trade represents a 3.07% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 31,766 shares of company stock worth $3,549,706 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Key Aflac News

Here are the key news stories impacting Aflac this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Raymond James raised its price target on Aflac to $119 from $110, signaling continued analyst confidence in Aflac’s fundamentals and upside versus prior valuation expectations. Aflac price target raised to $119 from $110 at Raymond James
• Neutral Sentiment: Underlying fundamentals still look reasonable for many investors — Aflac has mid?teens ROE and a P/E in the mid?teens, and technicals show the stock sitting near its 50? and 200?day averages — factors that can limit downside if earnings remain steady.
• Negative Sentiment: Aflac disclosed a major June data breach affecting about 22.6 million people that exposed Social Security numbers, health information and claims data — this raises potential remediation costs, credit?monitoring expenses, class?action and regulatory risk, and possible business/reputation impacts. The company is offering protections, but the scale of affected customers makes this a material operational risk to monitor. Aflac Reveals Just How Big Its Data Breach Really Was Massive Aflac breach exposed millions of SSNs and other data – get free protection today

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AFL. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $107.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $119.00 price target (up from $110.00) on shares of Aflac in a research report on Tuesday. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Aflac in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Aflac from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $110.58.

Aflac Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE AFL opened at $110.76 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $107.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a current ratio of 0.11. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $96.95 and a one year high of $115.83. The firm has a market cap of $58.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.46, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.66.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter. Aflac had a net margin of 23.55% and a return on equity of 14.97%. The firm had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter. Equities research analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 18th. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. Aflac’s payout ratio is presently 31.85%.

Aflac Company 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.