Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Purchases 3,413 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 55.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,413 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $794,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter worth about $1,558,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Aflac by 25.9% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,693,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $139,676,000 after buying an additional 348,400 shares in the last quarter. G&S Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Aflac by 65.1% in the fourth quarter. G&S Capital LLC now owns 31,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,626,000 after acquiring an additional 12,551 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in shares of Aflac by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 376,087 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,786,000 after acquiring an additional 26,338 shares during the period. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 48,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,741,000 after acquiring an additional 5,477 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AFL. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Aflac from $83.00 to $81.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $76.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Aflac from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.15.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $239,190.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $445,850.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $239,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,592 shares in the company, valued at $445,850.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 46,493 shares of company stock valued at $3,765,706. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Aflac Price Performance

NYSE:AFL opened at $83.23 on Monday. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $64.10 and a one year high of $86.26. The stock has a market cap of $47.89 billion, a PE ratio of 10.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.06 and a current ratio of 0.06. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $82.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.59.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.22). Aflac had a net margin of 24.92% and a return on equity of 17.59%. The company had revenue of $3.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.29 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.