Board of the Pension Protection Fund Makes New Investment in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 3,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $390,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AFL. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Aflac by 64.4% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,570 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,507,000 after purchasing an additional 5,708 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 4,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 11.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 13,527 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,504,000 after buying an additional 1,411 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 11.7% during the first quarter. CX Institutional now owns 4,416 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $491,000 after buying an additional 463 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Simon Quick Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Aflac by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 4,893 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $544,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Aflac from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $102.00 price objective (up previously from $100.00) on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $109.45.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was 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 trade represents a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE:AFL opened at $110.78 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $59.25 billion, a PE ratio of 25.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $107.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $105.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a current ratio of 0.11. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $96.95 and a fifty-two week high of $115.44.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter. Aflac had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 15.08%. The company had revenue of $5.91 billion during the quarter. Research analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.61%.

Aflac announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, August 12th that authorizes the company to buyback 100,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership 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.