NBC Securities Inc. Purchases Shares of 400 Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $44,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at about $948,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at $192,000. Next Level Wealth Planning LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at $318,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 2,210.3% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 158,535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $164,000 after buying an additional 151,673 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Aflac by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 38,039 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,935,000 after acquiring an additional 3,454 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on AFL. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $94.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Raymond James dropped their price target on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Aflac currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $104.93.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.70, for a total transaction of $290,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,728 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $711,149.60. This represents a 29.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.59, for a total transaction of $3,906,830.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 70,992 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,496,045.28. The trade was a 34.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 40,750 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,295. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $102.66 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $86.46 and a twelve month high of $115.50. The company’s fifty day moving average is $105.04 and its 200-day moving average is $105.68. The stock has a market cap of $55.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.82.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.01). Aflac had a net margin of 28.76% and a return on equity of 16.20%. The business had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.66 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 37.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st were given a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.25%.

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.