Advisors Preferred LLC Makes New $368,000 Investment in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Advisors Preferred LLC acquired a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,477 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $368,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 1,526.7% during the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 244 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the period. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Aflac during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. AlphaCore Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Aflac during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Mid American Wealth Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Aflac during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Hilltop National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Aflac during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total value of $102,570.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 25,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,575,019.85. This represents a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on AFL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Aflac from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Aflac from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Aflac from $114.00 to $111.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $110.00 target price on Aflac and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Aflac has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.90.

Aflac Price Performance

AFL opened at $106.92 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $108.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $105.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market cap of $57.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.86. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $96.95 and a 12-month high of $115.43.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $5.91 billion during the quarter. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.08% and a net margin of 15.32%. Research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, August 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase 100,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.