Aflac Incorporated $AFL Shares Sold by Welch Group LLC

Welch Group LLC reduced its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 16.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 31,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 6,461 shares during the period. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $3,575,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. purchased a new stake in Aflac in the 2nd quarter worth $6,630,000. Atlas Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,802,000. Callan Family Office LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac in the second quarter worth approximately $2,546,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Aflac by 137.4% during the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 40,904 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,796,000 after purchasing an additional 23,677 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in shares of Aflac by 135.5% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 142,180 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,599,000 after purchasing an additional 81,803 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 15th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $110.00 price target (up from $101.00) on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $101.00 target price (up from $99.00) on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $103.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Aflac from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.20.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 113,611 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.53, for a total transaction of $13,466,311.83. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 50,134,329 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,942,422,016.37. This represents a 0.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 713,662 shares of company stock valued at $83,323,978 over the last three months. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac Stock Up 0.1%

AFL opened at $123.99 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.56. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $105.48 and a one year high of $130.22. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $116.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $115.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a current ratio of 0.12.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $4.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.11 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 26.91% and a return on equity of 13.27%. Aflac’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.78 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.04 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.15%.

Aflac Company Profile

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) is an insurance company specializing in supplemental health and life insurance. Through its policies, the company helps individuals and families manage expenses that may not be fully covered by major medical insurance, including deductibles, copayments and other out-of-pocket costs.

Aflac offers products such as accident, cancer, critical illness, hospital indemnity, dental and vision, disability, life and long-term care insurance. Many of its supplemental policies provide cash benefits directly to policyholders, who can generally use the funds according to their individual needs.