Aflac Incorporated $AFL Shares Acquired by Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH

Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH increased its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 17.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 483,260 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 71,955 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH owned approximately 0.09% of Aflac worth $53,298,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Optas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. Optas LLC now owns 3,163 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $349,000 after acquiring an additional 553 shares during the period. Ticino Wealth bought a new position in Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at about $699,000. SageGuard Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at about $227,000. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its position in Aflac by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 22,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,474,000 after buying an additional 1,332 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Busey Bank grew its position in Aflac by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Busey Bank now owns 7,550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $833,000 after buying an additional 370 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other Aflac news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 166,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.38, for a total value of $18,655,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,723,100 shares in the company, valued at $5,812,641,978. This trade represents a 0.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 572,632 shares of company stock worth $63,514,634. Company insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AFL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $101.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Aflac from $116.00 to $114.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Mizuho set a $102.00 target price on shares of Aflac and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Aflac to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $111.82.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE:AFL opened at $114.76 on Thursday. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $96.95 and a twelve month high of $119.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a 50-day moving average of $111.31 and a 200-day moving average of $110.70. The firm has a market cap of $59.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.66.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.69 by ($0.12). Aflac had a net margin of 21.24% and a return on equity of 14.35%. The business had revenue of $4.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.57 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Profile

Aflac Incorporated (American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus) is a provider of supplemental insurance products designed to help policyholders manage out-of-pocket health care and living expenses. The company underwrites a range of individual and group policies that typically pay cash benefits directly to insureds when covered events occur, enabling greater financial flexibility for medical treatment, hospital stays, critical illness, and related costs. Aflac’s product mix includes supplemental health insurance, life insurance and other specialty coverages intended to complement primary medical plans.

Founded in the mid-20th century and headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, Aflac distributes its products through a combination of employer-sponsored programs, independent brokers and agents, and direct marketing.