GAMMA Investing LLC Has $834,000 Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 193.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 9,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,153 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $834,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Eudaimonia Partners LLC grew its stake in Aflac by 234.6% in the fourth quarter. Eudaimonia Partners LLC now owns 10,448 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $862,000 after acquiring an additional 7,325 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in Aflac by 22.6% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 86,010 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,096,000 after acquiring an additional 15,855 shares during the period. Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Aflac by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. now owns 139,164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,481,000 after acquiring an additional 589 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.7% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,806,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $155,140,000 after purchasing an additional 113,226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. bought a new stake in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at about $12,546,000. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AFL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Aflac from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Aflac from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. StockNews.com upgraded Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $83.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $88.08.

Aflac Trading Down 2.6 %

NYSE:AFL traded down $2.54 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $96.70. 1,522,149 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,237,180. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $72.78 and a one year high of $104.90. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $90.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $85.74.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.10 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.22% and a net margin of 28.35%. Aflac’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.58 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 22.08%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aflac news, Director Charles D. Lake II sold 22,378 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.47, for a total transaction of $1,957,403.66. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 61,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,381,329.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Aflac news, Director Charles D. Lake II sold 22,378 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.47, for a total transaction of $1,957,403.66. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 61,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,381,329.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.84, for a total value of $50,904.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 27,550 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,337,342. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Company 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.