Bank of New Hampshire Purchases 729 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Bank of New Hampshire raised its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 31,765 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 729 shares during the quarter. Bank of New Hampshire’s holdings in Aflac were worth $2,621,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Aflac by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,208,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,160,465,000 after acquiring an additional 605,210 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Aflac by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,643,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $740,141,000 after acquiring an additional 794,784 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,295,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $559,953,000 after purchasing an additional 368,704 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,808,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $369,036,000 after purchasing an additional 227,516 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,236,241 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $171,659,000 after purchasing an additional 49,479 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Aflac from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Evercore ISI cut Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $76.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Aflac from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Aflac from $83.00 to $81.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Aflac from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.15.

Insider Activity

In other Aflac news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $2,436,695.63. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 86,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,879,451.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Aflac news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $2,436,695.63. Following the sale, the director now owns 86,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,879,451.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were 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 approximately $445,850.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 46,493 shares of company stock worth $3,765,706 over the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac Trading Up 0.0 %

AFL traded up $0.01 during trading on Friday, hitting $83.74. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 652,893 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,258,139. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $64.10 and a twelve month high of $86.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $82.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.80, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.91.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $3.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.44 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.29 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.41 EPS for the current year.

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.