AMF Tjanstepension AB Sells 11,523 Shares of Aflac Incorporated $AFL

AMF Tjanstepension AB decreased its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 3.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 360,359 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 11,523 shares during the quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB owned approximately 0.07% of Aflac worth $38,023,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. increased its holdings in Aflac by 644.7% in the 2nd quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. now owns 14,536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,533,000 after acquiring an additional 12,584 shares in the last quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Aflac by 9.6% in the second quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 5,130 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $541,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 2.3% in the second quarter. Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. now owns 64,613 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,814,000 after purchasing an additional 1,471 shares in the last quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Aflac by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 105,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,080,000 after purchasing an additional 1,571 shares during the period. Finally, Hilltop National Bank purchased a new position in shares of Aflac during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. 67.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Aflac from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Aflac from $108.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Evercore ISI reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $106.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of Aflac in a report on Thursday, August 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $111.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.15.

Aflac Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of AFL opened at $112.24 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $60.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.86. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $96.95 and a 1 year high of $115.50. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $106.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.41.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 15.08%. Aflac’s quarterly revenue was down 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.61%.

Aflac declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, August 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase 100,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.