FourThought Financial Partners LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC trimmed its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 2.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,232 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 159 shares during the period. FourThought Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $582,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 2.4% during 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 buying an additional 288,482 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of 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. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 11.9% during 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 buying an additional 556,394 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Aflac during the 4th quarter valued at about $349,699,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,676,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $173,400,000 after buying an additional 263,134 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AFL. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Aflac from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Aflac from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $108.15.

Aflac Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of AFL opened at $103.40 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.81. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $94.03 and a 1 year high of $115.50. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $103.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.09 and a quick ratio of 0.09.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.53 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.55% and a net margin of 21.27%. The firm’s revenue was down 37.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st were issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.24%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.25%.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.79, for a total transaction of $106,790.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 26,096 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,786,791.84. This represents a 3.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 70,992 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,496,045.28. This represents a 34.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 40,750 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,295 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

About Aflac

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.