Wellington Management Group LLP Trims Holdings in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Wellington Management Group LLP reduced its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 5.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 621 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Aflac were worth $1,146,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 121.9% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $206,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Aflac by 11.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 13,527 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,504,000 after acquiring an additional 1,411 shares in the last quarter. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $865,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total value of $102,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 25,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,575,019.85. This represents a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Aflac from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Aflac from $114.00 to $111.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Aflac from $108.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Wall Street Zen raised Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Raymond James Financial dropped their price target on Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.15.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $106.96 on Monday. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $96.95 and a 1-year high of $115.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $103.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $104.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.20 billion, a PE ratio of 24.25, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.85.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.07. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.08% and a net margin of 15.32%.The company had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.83 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Aflac declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, August 12th that allows the company to repurchase 100,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be paid a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.61%.

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.