Aflac (NYSE:AFL) Given New $87.00 Price Target at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) had its price objective increased by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $83.00 to $87.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

AFL has been the subject of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Aflac from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Aflac from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a sell rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered shares of Aflac from an in-line rating to an underperform rating and lifted their price target for the company from $76.00 to $78.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $82.00.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $82.91 on Wednesday. Aflac has a twelve month low of $64.10 and a twelve month high of $86.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $81.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.91.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $3.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.44 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 24.92% and a return on equity of 17.59%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.29 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Aflac will post 6.43 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total transaction of $423,100.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total value of $423,100.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Albert Riggieri sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.34, for a total transaction of $666,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 32,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,735,635.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 46,493 shares of company stock valued at $3,765,706 in the last ninety days. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,208,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,160,465,000 after purchasing an additional 605,210 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 16,415,385 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,145,794,000 after acquiring an additional 107,554 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,888,265 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $765,297,000 after acquiring an additional 105,298 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,643,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $740,141,000 after acquiring an additional 794,784 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,295,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,953,000 after acquiring an additional 368,704 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

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.