Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Has $42.51 Million Holdings in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 385,490 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,040 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $42,508,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AFL. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC now owns 6,646 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $733,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Encompass More Asset Management boosted its stake in Aflac by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 10,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,181,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Aflac by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,072,717 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $118,256,000 after acquiring an additional 46,262 shares in the last quarter. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Aflac by 100.7% in the fourth quarter. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $904,000 after purchasing an additional 4,116 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its holdings in Aflac by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 62,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,912,000 after purchasing an additional 663 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Aflac from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Barclays set a $99.00 target price on Aflac and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Aflac from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Aflac from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Aflac from $116.00 to $114.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $111.36.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 86,155 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.24, for a total value of $9,756,192.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 51,636,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,847,367,651.80. This represents a 0.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 572,632 shares of company stock worth $63,514,634. Insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of AFL stock opened at $113.48 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $111.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $110.92. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $96.95 and a 12 month high of $119.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.46 billion, a PE ratio of 12.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.62.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.80 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $4.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.20 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 25.60% and a return on equity of 13.88%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 27.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. Aflac’s payout ratio is 27.70%.

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.