Miracle Mile Advisors LLC Has $629,000 Stock Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 21.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,078 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,068 shares during the quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $629,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.4% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,694,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $524,846,000 after purchasing an additional 281,148 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its position in Aflac by 1.3% during 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 buying an additional 31,752 shares in the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD increased its stake in Aflac by 3.8% during the 3rd 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 raised its holdings in Aflac by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $198,279,000 after acquiring an additional 117,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in Aflac by 26.6% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,338,000 after acquiring an additional 405,847 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on AFL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Aflac from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.07.

Aflac Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of AFL stock opened at $104.80 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.00. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $75.07 and a twelve month high of $115.50. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $106.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.12.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The firm’s revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.84 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. This is an increase from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.94%.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In related news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.40, for a total transaction of $2,558,529.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 222,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,018,701.20. This trade represents a 10.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.