Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Shares Sold by Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 0.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 285,872 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,565 shares during the quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC owned about 0.05% of Aflac worth $31,786,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $349,699,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $163,409,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Aflac by 12,313.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,504,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $167,237,000 after acquiring an additional 1,491,951 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Aflac by 22.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,296,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $754,700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,357,753 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi increased its position in Aflac by 81.1% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,753,513 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $285,181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,232,683 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on AFL. Raymond James Financial lowered their target price on Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Aflac from $102.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.93.

Aflac Stock Performance

AFL opened at $103.31 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $55.85 billion, a PE ratio of 16.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 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. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.27. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $88.00 and a fifty-two week high of $115.50.

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

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st were paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.25%.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.59, for a total value of $3,906,830.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 70,992 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,496,045.28. This trade represents a 34.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.79, for a total value of $106,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 26,096 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,786,791.84. This trade represents a 3.69% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,750 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,295 in the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac 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.