Court Place Advisors LLC Sells 1,850 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Court Place Advisors LLC lowered its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 4.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 36,551 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,850 shares during the quarter. Aflac accounts for about 1.2% of Court Place Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Court Place Advisors LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $4,086,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AFL. Y.D. More Investments Ltd acquired a new stake in Aflac during the second quarter worth $25,000. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in shares of Aflac during the 1st quarter worth about $34,000. Cedar Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac during the 1st quarter valued at about $50,000. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in Aflac in the second quarter valued at about $54,000. Finally, HHM Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Aflac by 178.6% in the second quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on AFL. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Aflac from $90.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Three equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.53.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of Aflac stock traded down $1.66 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $110.35. The company had a trading volume of 273,024 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,210,543. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $110.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $96.48. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $75.07 and a 1-year high of $115.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market capitalization of $62.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.58 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. Aflac’s payout ratio is presently 22.08%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total transaction of $197,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,796,552.52. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.90% 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.