Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Makes New Investment in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 7,658 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $535,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 37,453 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,614,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the period. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $364,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. Good Life Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC now owns 24,699 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,594,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the period. Keel Point LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 4,915 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $343,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the period. Finally, Laidlaw Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Laidlaw Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,385 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $675,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AFL. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 3rd. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 2nd. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $79.00 to $86.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Aflac from $69.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.63.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other Aflac news, COO Frederick John Crawford sold 100,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.37, for a total value of $8,137,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 236,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,247,178.43. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO Frederick John Crawford sold 100,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.37, for a total transaction of $8,137,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 236,539 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,247,178.43. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 500 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Monday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.47, for a total transaction of $38,235.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 26,598 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,033,949.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 162,201 shares of company stock valued at $13,163,404 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Price Performance

AFL stock opened at $81.17 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $78.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $73.47. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $60.20 and a 52-week high of $82.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.69, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 2nd. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.40. Aflac had a net margin of 24.17% and a return on equity of 17.86%. The firm had revenue of $4.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.31 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 14th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.35%.

Aflac Company Profile

Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. It operates in two segments, Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S. 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.