Aflac Incorporated Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.58 (NYSE:AFL)

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 19th will be paid a dividend of 0.58 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, December 1st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 19th.

Aflac has increased its dividend by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 44 years. Aflac has a dividend payout ratio of 32.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Aflac to earn $7.23 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.1%.

Aflac Trading Up 3.9%

Shares of Aflac stock traded up $4.20 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $113.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 214,581 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,177,100. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. Aflac has a 52 week low of $96.95 and a 52 week high of $115.43. The stock has a market cap of $60.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $108.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.59.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter. Aflac had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 15.08%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Aflac will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on AFL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Aflac presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $110.10.

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.