SteelPeak Wealth LLC Boosts Holdings in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 41.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 26,567 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,829 shares during the period. SteelPeak Wealth LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $2,802,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Regency Capital Management Inc. DE boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.9% in the second quarter. Regency Capital Management Inc. DE now owns 35,048 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,696,000 after buying an additional 1,964 shares during the last quarter. Next Level Wealth Planning LLC lifted its holdings in Aflac by 6.5% in the second quarter. Next Level Wealth Planning LLC now owns 3,147 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $332,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the period. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC boosted its position in Aflac by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 4,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $465,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 11,730 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,237,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the period. Finally, Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC now owns 2,065 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $218,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on AFL shares. Evercore ISI reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $106.00 target price (up from $105.00) on shares of Aflac in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Aflac in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $109.15.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total transaction of $102,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 25,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,575,019.85. This represents a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Aflac Price Performance

NYSE:AFL opened at $113.08 on Tuesday. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $96.95 and a 12 month high of $115.44. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $106.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market cap of $60.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.86.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.08% and a net margin of 15.32%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.83 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.61%.

Aflac declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, August 12th that allows the company to buyback 100,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Aflac 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.