Kovack Advisors Inc. Has $395,000 Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Kovack Advisors Inc. decreased its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 34.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,533 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,824 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $395,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AFL. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.4% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 98,535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,800,000 after buying an additional 5,912 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of Aflac in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,535,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 576.9% during the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 8,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $721,000 after purchasing an additional 6,882 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in Aflac by 161.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 311,239 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,723,000 after purchasing an additional 191,975 shares during the period. Finally, ORG Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Aflac by 1,273.4% during the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 10,575 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $942,000 after purchasing an additional 9,805 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on AFL. Barclays began coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.93.

Aflac Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $109.69 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $110.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $99.22. The company has a market cap of $60.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.52, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $75.07 and a 12 month high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. Aflac’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.84 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.12%.

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.