Alpine Bank Wealth Management Invests $678,000 in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 6,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $678,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Aflac during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Aflac during the 1st quarter worth $36,000. BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new position in shares of Aflac during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Curio Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Aflac during the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Aflac during the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In related news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.79, for a total transaction of $106,790.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 26,096 shares in the company, valued at $2,786,791.84. The trade was a 3.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $7,496,045.28. This represents a 34.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,750 shares of company stock worth $4,304,295 over the last ninety days. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac Stock Performance

Aflac stock opened at $104.18 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $56.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $104.76 and a 200-day moving average of $105.21. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $88.00 and a 52 week high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.53 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 21.27% and a return on equity of 15.55%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 37.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st were paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AFL. Wall Street Zen downgraded Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $94.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $102.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $104.93.

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.