Aflac (NYSE:AFL) Price Target Raised to $82.00

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) had its price objective raised by Truist Financial from $80.00 to $82.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a hold rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

AFL has been the topic of several other reports. UBS Group raised their target price on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $81.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Aflac from an in-line rating to an underperform rating and upped their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on Aflac from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $82.31.

Aflac Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of AFL stock opened at $83.21 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Aflac has a fifty-two week low of $64.10 and a fifty-two week high of $86.26. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $83.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $81.90. The stock has a market cap of $47.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.91.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.08. Aflac had a net margin of 27.67% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The business had revenue of $5.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Aflac will post 6.43 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.40%. This is a boost from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 22.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $2,436,695.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 86,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,879,451.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $445,850.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $2,436,695.63. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 86,090 shares in the company, valued at $6,879,451.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 46,493 shares of company stock worth $3,765,706 over the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Aflac by 1.1% in the third 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. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,643,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $740,141,000 after acquiring an additional 794,784 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 5.3% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.0% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,808,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $369,036,000 after acquiring an additional 227,516 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Aflac by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,190,954 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $263,254,000 after purchasing an additional 17,892 shares in the last quarter. 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.