Ballentine Partners LLC Buys 975 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Ballentine Partners LLC raised its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 23,282 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 975 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $2,603,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Aflac by 6.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $429,319,000 after purchasing an additional 285,576 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its position in Aflac by 1.3% in the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,429,316 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $202,437,000 after purchasing an additional 31,752 shares during the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its position in Aflac by 3.8% in the third quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,382,000 after purchasing an additional 83,289 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 5.6% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $198,279,000 after acquiring an additional 117,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in Aflac by 26.6% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,338,000 after acquiring an additional 405,847 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Aflac from $84.00 to $83.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. UBS Group raised their price target on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Aflac from $90.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.53.

Aflac Price Performance

NYSE AFL opened at $109.69 on Friday. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $75.07 and a one year high of $115.50. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $110.22 and a 200 day moving average of $96.59. The company has a market capitalization of $62.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.11, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a current ratio of 0.10.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.23. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.22% and a net margin of 28.35%. The company had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.10 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.58 EPS. Aflac’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.76 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. Aflac’s payout ratio is 22.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total value of $197,880.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,796,552.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac 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.