Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Stock Rated “Hold” by Wall Street Analysts

Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have given a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $117.53.

AFL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $119.00 to $123.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $103.00 target price for the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $125.00 target price (up from $124.00) on shares of Aflac in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Aflac from $116.00 to $107.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Aflac from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 15th.

Aflac Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $127.01 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market cap of $62.82 billion, a PE ratio of 18.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.55. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $118.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $116.48. Aflac has a 12-month low of $105.76 and a 12-month high of $131.18.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.80 by $0.63. Aflac had a net margin of 21.24% and a return on equity of 12.82%. The firm had revenue of $4.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.49 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 31.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac will post 7.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 18th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 35.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 50,134,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,942,422,016.37. This represents a 0.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 700,062 shares of company stock worth $81,675,348 over the last quarter. 0.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Aflac

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AFL. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Aflac during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,093,787,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Aflac in the second quarter valued at $404,639,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Aflac in the second quarter valued at $298,418,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Aflac in the second quarter valued at $244,516,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 161.9% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,184,801 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $349,405,000 after buying an additional 1,968,738 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

About Aflac

Aflac Incorporated is an insurance company that provides supplemental health and life insurance to individuals and businesses. Its products are designed to help customers manage expenses that may not be covered by major medical insurance, including costs associated with accidents, cancer, critical illness and hospital stays. The company operates primarily in the United States and Japan. In the U.S., Aflac offers workplace benefits such as accident, disability, dental, vision and life insurance. In Japan, it provides products including cancer, medical and life insurance.