Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Shares Acquired by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $879,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AFL. Y.D. More Investments Ltd bought a new stake in Aflac in the second quarter worth about $25,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its holdings in Aflac by 80.0% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 315 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the period. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in Aflac during the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new stake in Aflac during the 1st quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Sachetta LLC acquired a new stake in Aflac during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AFL. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $83.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 28th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Aflac from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Aflac from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aflac has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $92.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total value of $197,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,158 shares in the company, valued at $1,796,552.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $109.56 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $62.25 billion, a PE ratio of 12.09, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a fifty day moving average of $101.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $91.45. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $74.89 and a 52-week high of $111.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a current ratio of 0.10.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.23. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.22% and a net margin of 28.35%. The business had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.58 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.83%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 22.08%.

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.