Retirement Systems of Alabama Has $40.66 Million Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Retirement Systems of Alabama cut its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 492,801 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,034 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned about 0.08% of Aflac worth $40,656,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,558,000. abrdn plc lifted its stake in Aflac by 51.2% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 298,226 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,604,000 after acquiring an additional 100,937 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Aflac by 353.3% in the fourth quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 14,754 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,217,000 after acquiring an additional 11,499 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Aflac by 25.9% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,693,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $139,676,000 after acquiring an additional 348,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, G&S Capital LLC lifted its stake in Aflac by 65.1% in the fourth quarter. G&S Capital LLC now owns 31,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,626,000 after acquiring an additional 12,551 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Aflac Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $84.00 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.91. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.78. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $64.10 and a 12-month high of $86.26.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $3.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.44 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 24.92%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.29 EPS. Research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $2,436,695.63. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 86,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,879,451.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $2,436,695.63. Following the transaction, 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 the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $239,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 46,493 shares of company stock worth $3,765,706. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac Company Profile

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.