Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC Purchases 107 Shares of Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC increased its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $465,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 64.4% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,570 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,507,000 after purchasing an additional 5,708 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Aflac by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 4,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $455,000 after buying an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in Aflac in the first quarter valued at about $44,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Aflac during the first quarter worth about $473,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Aflac by 0.9% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 33,815 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,760,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aflac news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total transaction of $102,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 25,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,575,019.85. This represents a 3.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $106.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of Aflac in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $111.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Aflac from $108.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Aflac from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.15.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $113.08 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $60.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.86. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $96.95 and a twelve month high of $115.44. The company’s fifty day moving average is $106.56 and its 200 day moving average is $105.40. 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 (NYSE:AFL) last announced its 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. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.08% and a net margin of 15.32%.The business had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.83 EPS. Aflac’s revenue for the quarter was down 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Aflac announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, August 12th that permits the company to buyback 100,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

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

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.