Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Director Masatoshi Koide Sells 37,000 Shares of Stock

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.59, for a total transaction of $3,906,830.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 70,992 shares in the company, valued at $7,496,045.28. The trade was a 34.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $102.38 on Friday. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $86.46 and a 52 week high of $115.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.66, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $106.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $106.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.66 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 37.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. Aflac’s payout ratio is 36.25%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aflac

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AFL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Aflac during the 4th quarter valued at about $349,699,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Aflac during the 4th quarter valued at about $163,409,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Aflac by 12,313.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,504,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $167,237,000 after buying an additional 1,491,951 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Aflac by 22.9% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,296,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $754,700,000 after buying an additional 1,357,753 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Aflac during the 1st quarter valued at about $140,746,000. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AFL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $111.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $102.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $104.57.

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.