Townsquare Capital LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Townsquare Capital LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 19,697 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 449 shares during the quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $2,202,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew 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 worth $429,319,000 after acquiring an additional 285,576 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 31,752 shares during the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 83,289 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after purchasing an additional 117,504 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Aflac by 26.6% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,338,000 after purchasing an additional 405,847 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AFL. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group upped their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.93.

Aflac Stock Performance

AFL stock opened at $114.00 on Friday. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $75.07 and a 1-year high of $115.50. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $111.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.53. The company has a market capitalization of $63.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.17, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.84 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.12%.

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.