Venturi Wealth Management LLC Sells 1,105 Shares of Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Venturi Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,826 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,105 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $1,036,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AFL. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Aflac by 64.4% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,570 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,507,000 after buying an additional 5,708 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its position in Aflac by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 4,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Aflac during the 1st quarter valued at about $44,000. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its position in Aflac by 12.9% during the 1st quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 6,864 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $763,000 after purchasing an additional 786 shares during the period. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in Aflac by 25.7% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 11,486 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,292,000 after purchasing an additional 2,351 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AFL shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Piper Sandler set a $125.00 target price on shares of Aflac and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $110.17.

Aflac Price Performance

NYSE AFL opened at $111.87 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $107.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.50. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $96.95 and a 52-week high of $115.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a current ratio of 0.11. The stock has a market cap of $59.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.37, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Aflac Announces Dividend

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

Aflac announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, August 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase 100,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the director directly owned 25,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,575,019.85. This trade represents a 3.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.