Aflac Incorporated $AFL Shares Sold by Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC

Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 6.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,809 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 716 shares during the quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $1,034,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AFL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Aflac during the first quarter worth $140,746,000. Citigroup Inc. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 433,134 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Aflac by 10.8% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,575,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $397,510,000 after purchasing an additional 349,787 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in Aflac by 26.2% during the second quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,654,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $174,515,000 after purchasing an additional 343,881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aberdeen Group plc boosted its position in Aflac by 96.0% during the first quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 407,377 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $45,056,000 after purchasing an additional 199,583 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on AFL shares. Evercore ISI set a $110.00 target price on Aflac and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $102.00 target price (up from $100.00) on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Aflac from $114.00 to $111.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Aflac from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $125.00 price objective on Aflac and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Aflac currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.45.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the 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 directly 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Aflac Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $110.78 on Friday. 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 52-week low of $96.95 and a 52-week high of $115.44. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $107.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.48. The company has a market capitalization of $59.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.86.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.08% and a net margin of 15.32%.The firm had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued 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 was Wednesday, August 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.61%.

Aflac declared that its Board of Directors has authorized 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 repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.