Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Raises Dividend to $0.50 Per Share

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 1st, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.37%. This is an increase from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42.

Aflac has raised its dividend by an average of 14.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 43 consecutive years. Aflac has a payout ratio of 29.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Aflac to earn $6.85 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.2%.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $84.55 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.65 billion, a PE ratio of 10.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.91. Aflac has a fifty-two week low of $64.10 and a fifty-two week high of $86.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.06 and a current ratio of 0.06.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.22). Aflac had a net margin of 24.92% and a return on equity of 17.59%. The company had revenue of $3.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Aflac will post 6.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total value of $423,100.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $239,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,592 shares in the company, valued at $445,850.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total value of $423,100.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 17,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 46,493 shares of company stock valued at $3,765,706. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on AFL. StockNews.com cut Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Aflac from $83.00 to $81.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.15.

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.