Brighton Jones LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 18.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 8,862 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,371 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $991,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,806,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $155,140,000 after buying an additional 113,226 shares during the period. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 98,535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,800,000 after buying an additional 5,912 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 718,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $61,653,000 after buying an additional 22,637 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 13.9% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 708,248 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $60,810,000 after buying an additional 86,578 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,535,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Barclays started coverage on Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen started coverage on Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total transaction of $197,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,796,552.52. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Aflac Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of AFL stock opened at $112.02 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $110.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $96.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $63.65 billion, a PE ratio of 12.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $75.07 and a 1-year high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 22.08%.

About Aflac

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.