Aflac (NYSE:AFL) Price Target Increased to $106.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) had its target price hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $90.00 to $106.00 in a research note released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

AFL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Aflac from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $97.53.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE AFL traded up $1.98 on Thursday, hitting $113.59. 195,630 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,242,651. The firm has a market cap of $63.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $107.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $94.63. Aflac has a fifty-two week low of $75.07 and a fifty-two week high of $115.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.10.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.23. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.22% and a net margin of 28.35%. The firm had revenue of $5.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.58 earnings per share. Aflac’s quarterly revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Aflac will post 6.76 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.16%.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total transaction of $197,880.00. Following the transaction, the director now 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. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aflac

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AFL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Aflac by 6.3% during 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. boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1.3% in the 2nd 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 buying an additional 31,752 shares during the period. Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,382,000 after buying an additional 83,289 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Aflac by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $198,279,000 after buying an additional 117,504 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp raised its stake in Aflac by 26.6% during 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. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.