Certified Advisory Corp Buys 378 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Certified Advisory Corp lifted its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 42,302 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 378 shares during the period. Certified Advisory Corp’s holdings in Aflac were worth $3,778,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC bought a new stake in Aflac in the 4th quarter worth $484,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Aflac during the fourth quarter worth about $347,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 530,943 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,803,000 after purchasing an additional 39,846 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 13.9% in the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 100,019 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,252,000 after purchasing an additional 12,190 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SageView Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in Aflac during the 4th quarter valued at about $253,000. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total value of $197,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,796,552.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AFL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Bank of America increased their price objective on Aflac from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aflac currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.50.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $107.92 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.03. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $74.89 and a fifty-two week high of $111.14. The company has a market capitalization of $61.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.95. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.58 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. Aflac’s 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.