Conning Inc. Increases Holdings in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Conning Inc. increased its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 333,847 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,404 shares during the quarter. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $35,208,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AFL. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Aflac by 64.4% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,570 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,507,000 after purchasing an additional 5,708 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Aflac by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 4,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $455,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the first quarter valued at $44,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Aflac by 25.7% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 11,486 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,292,000 after purchasing an additional 2,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Aflac by 8.6% in the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 11,772 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,309,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AFL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Aflac from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Evercore ISI set a $110.00 price objective on Aflac and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler set a $125.00 price objective on Aflac and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Aflac from $108.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Aflac currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.45.

Aflac Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of AFL stock opened at $110.78 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $107.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.52. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $96.95 and a 12-month high of $115.44. The firm has a market cap of $59.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.86.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.08% and a net margin of 15.32%.The firm had revenue of $5.91 billion during the quarter. Equities analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Aflac’s payout ratio is 52.61%.

Aflac declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, August 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase 100,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total transaction of $102,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 25,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,575,019.85. The trade was a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Aflac 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.