Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. Decreases Stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. lowered its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 1.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,567 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 285 shares during the period. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $3,288,000 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. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,340,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,310,640,000 after purchasing an additional 653,275 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,465,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,286,042,000 after purchasing an additional 288,482 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 22.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,296,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $754,700,000 after purchasing an additional 1,357,753 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,250,905 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $543,154,000 after purchasing an additional 556,394 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Aflac during the fourth quarter worth $349,699,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Aflac from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Aflac from $94.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $104.93.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.79, for a total value of $106,790.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,096 shares in the company, valued at $2,786,791.84. This trade represents a 3.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 2,750 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.70, for a total transaction of $290,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,728 shares in the company, valued at approximately $711,149.60. This trade represents a 29.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,750 shares of company stock worth $4,304,295 over the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Aflac Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $102.51 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $104.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.20. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $88.00 and a 52-week high of $115.50. The firm has a market cap of $55.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 0.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($0.01). Aflac had a net margin of 21.27% and a return on equity of 15.55%. The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.66 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 37.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st were given a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.25%.

About Aflac

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.