Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 0.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 643,686 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,244 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $71,964,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AFL. Y.D. More Investments Ltd purchased a new position in Aflac during the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Cedar Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Aflac during the 1st quarter worth $50,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Aflac during the 3rd quarter worth $51,000. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the 2nd quarter valued at about $54,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 116.7% in the 3rd quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 479 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AFL. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.93.

Aflac Price Performance

AFL opened at $108.27 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $110.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a current ratio of 0.08. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $75.07 and a 1 year high of $115.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $60.15 billion, a PE ratio of 16.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.84 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.17 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.12%.

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.