Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Grows Holdings in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 535.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 63,593 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 53,593 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $6,993,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cynosure Group LLC bought a new position in Aflac in the 4th quarter worth $452,000. 71 West Capital Partners bought a new position in Aflac in the 4th quarter worth $320,000. Faithward Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Faithward Advisors LLC now owns 4,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $485,000 after acquiring an additional 458 shares in the last quarter. Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych PZU SA lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 34.8% in the fourth quarter. Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych PZU SA now owns 620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Finally, USS Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 81,441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,981,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on AFL shares. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Aflac from $116.00 to $114.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Aflac from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Monday. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective (up from $125.00) on shares of Aflac in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Aflac from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, Mizuho set a $104.00 price objective on Aflac in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $112.27.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 53,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.74, for a total transaction of $6,240,220.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 51,014,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,006,474,898.90. This represents a 0.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,009,956 shares of company stock worth $115,897,719. 0.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac Stock Performance

AFL opened at $117.38 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.32, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a fifty day moving average of $114.95 and a 200 day moving average of $112.09. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $96.95 and a fifty-two week high of $119.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a current ratio of 0.11.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.80 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.20 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 25.60% and a return on equity of 13.88%. The business’s revenue was up 27.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 27.70%.

About Aflac

Aflac Incorporated (American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus) is a provider of supplemental insurance products designed to help policyholders manage out-of-pocket health care and living expenses. The company underwrites a range of individual and group policies that typically pay cash benefits directly to insureds when covered events occur, enabling greater financial flexibility for medical treatment, hospital stays, critical illness, and related costs. Aflac’s product mix includes supplemental health insurance, life insurance and other specialty coverages intended to complement primary medical plans.

Founded in the mid-20th century and headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, Aflac distributes its products through a combination of employer-sponsored programs, independent brokers and agents, and direct marketing.