Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Has $32.40 Million Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 6.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 313,211 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,613 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec owned about 0.06% of Aflac worth $32,399,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,340,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,310,640,000 after acquiring an additional 653,275 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Aflac by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,465,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,286,042,000 after purchasing an additional 288,482 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Aflac by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,296,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $754,700,000 after purchasing an additional 1,357,753 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac during the 4th quarter worth about $349,699,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,226,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $333,768,000 after buying an additional 47,119 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aflac news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.63, for a total value of $107,630.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,733,048.59. This trade represents a 3.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Charles D. Lake II sold 29,802 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.29, for a total value of $3,197,456.58. Following the sale, the director now owns 49,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,360,422.98. This trade represents a 37.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of AFL opened at $105.51 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $107.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $106.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.08. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $81.96 and a one year high of $115.50. The company has a market cap of $57.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.99, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.81.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.01). Aflac had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 28.76%. The business had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.53 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.66 EPS. Aflac’s quarterly revenue was down 37.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on AFL. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Aflac from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Aflac from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $104.00.

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.