Covestor Ltd Increases Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 41.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 363 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd’s holdings in Aflac were worth $41,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Aflac by 6.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $429,319,000 after acquiring an additional 285,576 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its stake in Aflac by 1.3% in the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,429,316 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,437,000 after acquiring an additional 31,752 shares during the period. Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its stake in Aflac by 3.8% in the third quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $254,382,000 after acquiring an additional 83,289 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in Aflac by 5.6% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $198,279,000 after buying an additional 117,504 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in Aflac by 26.6% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,338,000 after buying an additional 405,847 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on AFL. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Aflac from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price target for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.93.

Aflac Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $111.32 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $110.36 and a 200 day moving average of $99.29. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $75.07 and a 12-month high of $115.50. The company has a market cap of $61.84 billion, a PE ratio of 16.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.96.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.84 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.