Great Lakes Advisors LLC Has $543,000 Stock Position in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Great Lakes Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 93.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,884 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 69,318 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $543,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Aflac by 12,313.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,504,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $167,237,000 after acquiring an additional 1,491,951 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Aflac during the first quarter worth $140,746,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Aflac by 11.9% during the fourth 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 worth $543,154,000 after acquiring an additional 556,394 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in Aflac during the fourth quarter worth $48,081,000. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its position in Aflac by 133.2% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 758,424 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $84,329,000 after acquiring an additional 433,134 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Evercore ISI reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $106.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Aflac in a report on Thursday, August 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.15.

Aflac Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $109.14 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $104.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.19. The company has a market cap of $58.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $96.95 and a 12-month high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 15.08%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.83 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were given a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 52.61%.

Aflac declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, August 12th that authorizes the company to buyback 100,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In related news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total transaction of $102,570.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 25,105 shares in the company, valued at $2,575,019.85. This represents a 3.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.