Wealthfront Advisers LLC Purchases Shares of 93,648 Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 93,648 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $10,980,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AFL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Aflac by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 57,142,072 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,301,056,000 after acquiring an additional 6,759,169 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Aflac in the 2nd quarter worth about $4,093,787,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Aflac by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,550,855 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $499,216,000 after buying an additional 67,650 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Aflac during the 4th quarter valued at about $420,078,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in Aflac by 22.6% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 3,268,209 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $358,555,000 after buying an additional 603,426 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AFL. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $108.00 price objective (up from $100.00) on shares of Aflac in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Aflac from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and set a $110.00 price target (up from $101.00) on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.62.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $116.48 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $58.40 billion, a PE ratio of 12.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a current ratio of 0.12. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $121.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $116.09. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $104.66 and a one year high of $130.22.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its earnings results 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.78 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. Aflac’s payout ratio is 26.15%.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In related news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 63,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.12, for a total transaction of $7,441,560.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,169,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,044,133,662.20. This represents a 0.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 507,333 shares of company stock worth $59,450,256. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Company Profile

Aflac Incorporated (American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus) is a provider of supplemental insurance products designed to help policyholders manage out-of-pocket health care and living expenses. The company underwrites a range of individual and group policies that typically pay cash benefits directly to insureds when covered events occur, enabling greater financial flexibility for medical treatment, hospital stays, critical illness, and related costs. Aflac’s product mix includes supplemental health insurance, life insurance and other specialty coverages intended to complement primary medical plans.

Founded in the mid-20th century and headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, Aflac distributes its products through a combination of employer-sponsored programs, independent brokers and agents, and direct marketing.