Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Has $155.43 Million Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. decreased its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,390,217 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,660 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.25% of Aflac worth $155,426,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC boosted its stake in Aflac by 7,001.0% during the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 667,706 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $596,000 after acquiring an additional 658,303 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Aflac by 10,878.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 559,903 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $62,597,000 after purchasing an additional 554,803 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Aflac by 26.6% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,338,000 after purchasing an additional 405,847 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Aflac in the 1st quarter valued at $27,588,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Aflac by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $429,319,000 after buying an additional 285,576 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on AFL. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price objective on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.93.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $110.68 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.49 billion, a PE ratio of 16.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.96. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $75.07 and a 52 week high of $115.50. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $110.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $98.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a current ratio of 0.08.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.84 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.81%. Aflac’s payout ratio is 30.12%.

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.