Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 1.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,817 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $650,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AFL. Harbour Investments Inc. grew its holdings in Aflac by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 5,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $607,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Aflac by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 30,859 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,450,000 after acquiring an additional 1,602 shares during the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 7.6% in the third quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 35,830 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,006,000 after purchasing an additional 2,517 shares during the period. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Aflac during the third quarter worth about $235,000. Finally, Kennebec Savings Bank purchased a new position in Aflac during the third quarter worth about $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE AFL opened at $109.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market cap of $60.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.59, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $99.22. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $75.07 and a one year high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. 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 company posted $1.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.12%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group increased their price target 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. Bank of America raised their target price on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Aflac from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. 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, Aflac has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.