Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 5,858 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 64,290 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,858 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $7,188,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in 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 worth $429,319,000 after acquiring an additional 285,576 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,429,316 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,437,000 after purchasing an additional 31,752 shares during the period. Guinness Asset Management LTD increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $254,382,000 after purchasing an additional 83,289 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after purchasing an additional 117,504 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 26.6% during the 2nd 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of AFL stock opened at $113.20 on Tuesday. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $75.07 and a 1 year high of $115.50. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $110.80 and its 200-day moving average is $100.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.05, a PEG ratio of 2.17 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 (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. Aflac’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.84 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.12%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AFL. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. 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 target price on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy 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 $97.93.

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.