Aflac Incorporated $AFL Shares Acquired by HRT Financial LP

HRT Financial LP lifted its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 950.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 254,954 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 230,672 shares during the quarter. HRT Financial LP’s holdings in Aflac were worth $26,887,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Aflac in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $432,201,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Aflac by 16.7% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,167,886 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $439,545,000 after acquiring an additional 594,971 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in Aflac in the second quarter valued at $60,954,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 459.0% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 701,390 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $73,969,000 after purchasing an additional 575,915 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 146.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 772,061 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,422,000 after purchasing an additional 458,551 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $107.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Aflac from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Piper Sandler set a $125.00 price target on Aflac and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Aflac from $110.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Aflac in a report on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $111.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Steven Kent Beaver sold 3,452 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.26, for a total transaction of $377,165.52. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,792,143.60. The trade was a 7.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 786 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.75, for a total transaction of $89,407.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 24,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,824,298.75. The trade was a 3.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 26,274 shares of company stock valued at $2,948,167 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $110.10 on Friday. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $96.95 and a 12-month high of $115.83. The stock has a market cap of $57.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.37, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $110.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.57.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Aflac had a return on equity of 14.97% and a net margin of 23.55%.The company had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. This is a boost from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.29%.

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.