80,860 Shares of Aflac Incorporated $AFL Bought by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 80,860 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,191,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Provenance Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1,058.8% in the 3rd quarter. Provenance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 394 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 360 shares during the period. Associated Banc Corp purchased a new position in Aflac in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $869,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Aflac during the third quarter worth $89,000. First Nebraska Trust Co acquired a new position in Aflac during the third quarter worth $316,000. Finally, Summit Wealth Group LLC Co. raised its holdings in Aflac by 0.5% during the third quarter. Summit Wealth Group LLC Co. now owns 22,041 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,464,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AFL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial boosted their target price on Aflac from $119.00 to $123.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Aflac from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Aflac from $125.00 to $120.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $101.00 price target (up from $99.00) on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.20.

Key Stories Impacting Aflac

Here are the key news stories impacting Aflac this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Aflac reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.43 per share, above the roughly $1.80 analyst estimate. Stronger U.S. profit growth and lower expenses helped drive the beat. Aflac Q3 earnings beat estimates on strong US profit growth
• Positive Sentiment: The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.61 per share, payable December 1, extending its dividend-growth streak to 44 years and reinforcing its appeal to income-focused investors. Aflac declares fourth-quarter dividend
• Neutral Sentiment: Aflac expects a 35%–38% pretax margin in Japan and is targeting reinsurance cessions covering 30% of FSA reserves. The plan may support profitability and capital management, but execution and its eventual financial impact remain to be seen. Aflac Japan margin and reinsurance targets
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the adjusted earnings beat, Aflac’s reported net profit fell, and revenue was down 31% year over year in the supplied results. Weaker Japan results, currency headwinds and portfolio-related losses weighed on the overall picture. Aflac Q3 profit falls

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 113,611 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.53, for a total value of $13,466,311.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 50,134,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,942,422,016.37. The trade was a 0.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 713,662 shares of company stock worth $83,323,978 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of AFL opened at $126.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.12 and a quick ratio of 0.12. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $117.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $116.13. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $105.76 and a 1-year high of $131.19. The stock has a market cap of $63.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.55.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.80 by $0.63. Aflac had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 21.24%. 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 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 31.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 18th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.15%.

About Aflac

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) is an insurance company specializing in supplemental health and life insurance. Through its policies, the company helps individuals and families manage expenses that may not be fully covered by major medical insurance, including deductibles, copayments and other out-of-pocket costs.

Aflac offers products such as accident, cancer, critical illness, hospital indemnity, dental and vision, disability, life and long-term care insurance. Many of its supplemental policies provide cash benefits directly to policyholders, who can generally use the funds according to their individual needs.