Aflac Incorporated $AFL Shares Newly Acquired by Vise Technologies Inc.

Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 51,532 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,760,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. acquired a new stake in Aflac in the 2nd quarter valued at $6,630,000. Atlas Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac during the first quarter worth approximately $1,802,000. Callan Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Aflac in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,546,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in Aflac by 137.4% in the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 40,904 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,796,000 after buying an additional 23,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Aflac by 135.5% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 142,180 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $15,599,000 after acquiring 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 topic of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 15th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $138.00 price objective (up from $130.00) on shares of Aflac in a report on Monday, August 10th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Aflac from $122.00 to $116.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Aflac from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.20.

Aflac Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of AFL opened at $124.57 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market cap of $62.45 billion, a PE ratio of 16.10, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.56. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $105.48 and a 1 year high of $130.22. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $116.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $115.90.

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

Aflac Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 113,611 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.53, for a total transaction of $13,466,311.83. Following the sale, the insider owned 50,134,329 shares in the company, valued at $5,942,422,016.37. This represents a 0.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 713,662 shares of company stock worth $83,323,978. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Aflac 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.