Pacer Advisors Inc. Purchases 12,768 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 21.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 73,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,768 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $8,218,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Y.D. More Investments Ltd acquired a new position in Aflac during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Aflac during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 41.8% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 363 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new stake in Aflac during the 3rd quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Aflac during the third quarter worth $51,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AFL. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Aflac from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.93.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $112.39 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $110.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $75.07 and a 1 year high of $115.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. 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%. The firm’s revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.84 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac’s payout ratio is 30.12%.

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.