1858 Wealth Management LLC Buys Shares of 2,144 Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

1858 Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 2,144 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AFL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $429,319,000 after purchasing an additional 285,576 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its stake 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 valued at $202,437,000 after buying an additional 31,752 shares during the period. Guinness Asset Management LTD grew 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 valued at $254,382,000 after acquiring an additional 83,289 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.6% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after acquiring an additional 117,504 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 405,847 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on AFL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays initiated coverage on Aflac in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.53.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total transaction of $197,880.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,158 shares in the company, valued at $1,796,552.52. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL traded down $1.85 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $112.65. 419,425 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,231,003. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.64, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $109.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $95.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.10. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $75.07 and a 1-year high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.23. Aflac had a net margin of 28.35% and a return on equity of 16.22%. The business had revenue of $5.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.58 earnings per share. Aflac’s quarterly revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.08%.

Aflac 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.