Midwest Trust Co Buys 153,925 Shares of Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Midwest Trust Co boosted its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 1,700.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 162,975 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 153,925 shares during the quarter. Midwest Trust Co’s holdings in Aflac were worth $17,880,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in shares of Aflac by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 21,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,420,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the period. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $234,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its stake in Aflac by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 19,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,105,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC grew its stake in Aflac by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 7,702 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $902,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Wealth Services Inc. raised its holdings in Aflac by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 11,923 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,315,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on AFL shares. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Aflac from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Mizuho set a $112.00 price objective on Aflac in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $124.00 price objective (up from $114.00) on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $130.00 target price (up from $125.00) on shares of Aflac in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Aflac from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $114.08.

Aflac Stock Performance

Aflac stock traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $121.98. The company had a trading volume of 1,193,224 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,392,482. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm has a market cap of $62.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.85, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a 50 day moving average of $116.91 and a 200-day moving average of $113.28. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $96.95 and a 52 week high of $122.80.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.80 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.20 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 13.88% and a net margin of 25.60%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.66 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 27.70%.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other Aflac news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 63,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.12, for a total value of $7,441,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 51,169,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,044,133,662.20. This represents a 0.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 744,916 shares of company stock worth $87,118,632 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Profile

Aflac Incorporated (American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus) is a provider of supplemental insurance products designed to help policyholders manage out-of-pocket health care and living expenses. The company underwrites a range of individual and group policies that typically pay cash benefits directly to insureds when covered events occur, enabling greater financial flexibility for medical treatment, hospital stays, critical illness, and related costs. Aflac’s product mix includes supplemental health insurance, life insurance and other specialty coverages intended to complement primary medical plans.

Founded in the mid-20th century and headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, Aflac distributes its products through a combination of employer-sponsored programs, independent brokers and agents, and direct marketing.