Great Lakes Advisors LLC Grows Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 81,346 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 520 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $5,678,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its holdings in Aflac by 99,608.4% during the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 1,691,395,636 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $118,059,415,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689,699,293 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in Aflac by 0.7% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 42,505,613 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,742,462,000 after purchasing an additional 291,800 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Aflac by 0.9% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,888,265 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $765,297,000 after purchasing an additional 105,298 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Aflac by 22.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,812,956 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $634,004,000 after purchasing an additional 1,640,984 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Aflac by 71.2% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,512,084 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $420,160,000 after purchasing an additional 2,707,608 shares during the last quarter. 66.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on AFL. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $71.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 15th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 3rd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $79.00 to $86.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 32,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.32, for a total transaction of $2,570,240.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 55,598 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,465,631.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, VP June P. Howard sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.01, for a total transaction of $486,060.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 123,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,966,336.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 32,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.32, for a total transaction of $2,570,240.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 55,598 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,465,631.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 162,201 shares of company stock valued at $13,163,404. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of AFL stock opened at $81.77 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.77, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $78.54 and its 200 day moving average is $73.37. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $60.20 and a 12 month high of $82.71.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 2nd. The financial services provider reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $4.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.31 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 24.17% and a return on equity of 17.86%. Aflac’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 14th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.35%.

Aflac Company Profile

Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. It operates in two segments, Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S. 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.