By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Flywheel Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL – Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $280,000.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AFL. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Aflac by 75.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 776,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $88,533,000 after buying an additional 333,083 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 79.7% in the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,354 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after acquiring an additional 12,131 shares in the last quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Aflac during the 3rd quarter valued at $979,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Aflac by 4.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,202,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $134,395,000 after buying an additional 45,745 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC acquired a new position in shares of Aflac in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $250,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.40, for a total transaction of $2,558,529.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 222,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,018,701.20. This represents a 10.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.
Aflac Trading Up 1.1 %
Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $104.80 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $58.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.78, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $106.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $75.07 and a 52 week high of $115.50.
Aflac (NYSE:AFL – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. Aflac’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.84 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Aflac Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.94%.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America upped their price target on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Two equities 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 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $102.07.
View Our Latest Analysis on AFL
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.
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