Aflac Incorporated $AFL Shares Purchased by Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC increased its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 18.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 107,371 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,393 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $11,323,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AFL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Aflac during the 1st quarter worth $140,746,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in Aflac in the 2nd quarter valued at about $60,954,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Aflac by 146.3% in the second quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 772,061 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $81,422,000 after buying an additional 458,551 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in Aflac by 133.2% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 758,424 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $84,329,000 after buying an additional 433,134 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its stake in Aflac by 19.4% during the second quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,372,484 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $250,187,000 after buying an additional 385,546 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Friday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.00, for a total transaction of $114,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 23,615 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,692,110. The trade was a 4.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 15,862 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.00, for a total transaction of $1,776,544.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 230,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,837,056. The trade was a 6.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 22,822 shares of company stock worth $2,571,002 over the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $110.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Aflac from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on Aflac from $114.00 to $111.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Aflac currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $111.00.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE:AFL opened at $110.31 on Friday. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $96.95 and a 52 week high of $115.83. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $110.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $106.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market cap of $57.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.83.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, August 12th that allows the company to buyback 100,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 18th. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 31.85%.

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.