Edge Capital Group LLC Takes Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Edge Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 7,668 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $685,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 7,001.0% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 667,706 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $596,000 after acquiring an additional 658,303 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Aflac during the 1st quarter worth about $27,588,000. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its holdings in Aflac by 196.5% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 484,176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,945,000 after purchasing an additional 320,867 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Aflac by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $429,319,000 after purchasing an additional 285,576 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Aflac by 27.6% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,243,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $111,029,000 after purchasing an additional 268,694 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AFL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Aflac from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Aflac from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Aflac from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $107.92 on Monday. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $74.89 and a fifty-two 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. The company has a market cap of $61.32 billion, a PE ratio of 11.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $102.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.03.

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

Aflac Announces Dividend

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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.