Federated Hermes Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 163.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 16,613 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,302 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $1,371,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 24,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,896,000 after buying an additional 1,793 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management increased its stake in Aflac by 29.7% during the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 23,935 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,904,000 after acquiring an additional 5,474 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in Aflac by 0.4% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 349,989 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,862,000 after purchasing an additional 1,265 shares during the period. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA acquired a new position in shares of Aflac in the 3rd quarter valued at $55,000. Finally, Busey Trust CO grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 12.0% during the 3rd quarter. Busey Trust CO now owns 7,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $545,000 after purchasing an additional 761 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aflac news, SVP Albert Riggieri sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.34, for a total transaction of $666,720.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 32,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,735,635.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $2,436,695.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 86,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,879,451.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Albert Riggieri sold 8,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.34, for a total value of $666,720.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 32,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,735,635.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 46,493 shares of company stock worth $3,765,706. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AFL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Aflac from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $82.15.

Aflac Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $84.54 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market cap of $48.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.91. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $64.10 and a 52-week high of $86.26. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.82.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.22). The business had revenue of $3.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.44 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 24.92%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.41 earnings per share for the current year.

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.