Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Shares Sold by Trust Co. of Vermont

Trust Co. of Vermont trimmed its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 4.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 579 shares during the quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont’s holdings in Aflac were worth $1,419,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Aflac by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,340,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,310,640,000 after acquiring an additional 653,275 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Aflac by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,465,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,286,042,000 after acquiring an additional 288,482 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Aflac by 22.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,357,753 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Aflac by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,250,905 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $543,154,000 after acquiring an additional 556,394 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at about $349,699,000. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on AFL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $94.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. UBS Group boosted 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. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Aflac from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.93.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 2,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.70, for a total value of $290,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,728 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $711,149.60. The trade was a 29.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.59, for a total value of $3,906,830.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 70,992 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,496,045.28. This trade represents a 34.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 40,750 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,295. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Price Performance

AFL opened at $105.12 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $56.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.43, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.82. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $88.00 and a 1 year high of $115.50. 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 fifty day moving average price of $104.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $105.19.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.53 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 21.27% and a return on equity of 15.55%. Aflac’s revenue for the quarter was down 37.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.66 EPS. Analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st were given a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.21%. Aflac’s payout ratio is 36.25%.

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.