Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc Lowers Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc reduced its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 188 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc’s holdings in Aflac were worth $2,976,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Spinnaker Trust increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 3,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Aflac by 1.0% in the third quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 9,783 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,094,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC increased its position in shares of Aflac by 0.6% in the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 17,231 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,539,000 after buying an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Aflac by 0.5% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 21,775 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,945,000 after buying an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Century Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC now owns 4,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $469,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AFL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays started coverage on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 target price for the company. Evercore ISI raised their price target 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. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Three equities research 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 a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.93.

Aflac Stock Performance

Aflac stock opened at $110.44 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $61.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $99.14. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $75.07 and a 1-year high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.84 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.81%. 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.