Allium Financial Advisors LLC Purchases New Shares in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Allium Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,502 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $278,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 121.9% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in Aflac during the first quarter worth about $36,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Aflac during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Aflac during the first quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Aflac during the first quarter worth about $44,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AFL. Barclays set a $98.00 price objective on shares of Aflac and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Raymond James Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $108.15.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In related news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.79, for a total value of $106,790.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 26,096 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,786,791.84. The trade was a 3.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.59, for a total value of $3,906,830.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 70,992 shares in the company, valued at $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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 40,750 shares of company stock worth $4,304,295. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE AFL opened at $103.40 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $103.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.17. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $94.03 and a 12-month 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 company has a market cap of $55.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.16, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.81.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its 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). The business had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.53 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.55% and a net margin of 21.27%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 37.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.66 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st were paid a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.25%.

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.