Raymond James & Associates Increases Stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 7.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 792,420 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 53,463 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates owned approximately 0.14% of Aflac worth $68,037,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter worth $1,558,000. abrdn plc lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 51.2% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 298,226 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,604,000 after purchasing an additional 100,937 shares in the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Aflac by 353.3% in the fourth quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 14,754 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,217,000 after buying an additional 11,499 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 25.9% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,693,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $139,676,000 after buying an additional 348,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, G&S Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 65.1% during the 4th quarter. G&S Capital LLC now owns 31,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,626,000 after buying an additional 12,551 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total transaction of $423,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at $1,516,390.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total value of $423,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $239,190.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $445,850.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 46,493 shares of company stock worth $3,765,706. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE AFL traded down $0.83 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $83.21. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,938,536 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,533,085. The stock has a market cap of $47.88 billion, a PE ratio of 9.18, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.89. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $64.10 and a 52 week high of $86.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $5.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.09 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 27.67%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.40%. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 21st. Aflac’s payout ratio is presently 22.08%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on AFL shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Aflac from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Aflac from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Raymond James increased their price target on Aflac from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.31.

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.