Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Director Charles D. Lake II Sells 29,802 Shares

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Director Charles D. Lake II sold 29,802 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.29, for a total transaction of $3,197,456.58. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 49,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,360,422.98. The trade was a 37.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Aflac Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $106.35 on Wednesday. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $79.31 and a 52 week high of $115.50. The company’s 50 day moving average is $105.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $107.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market cap of $58.13 billion, a PE ratio of 11.08, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.93.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.07). Aflac had a net margin of 28.76% and a return on equity of 16.20%. Equities analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AFL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Aflac from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Aflac from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $103.36.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AFL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at $349,699,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at $163,409,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Aflac by 22.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,296,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $754,700,000 after buying an additional 1,357,753 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in shares of Aflac by 81.1% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,753,513 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $285,181,000 after buying an additional 1,232,683 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Aflac by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,340,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,310,640,000 after buying an additional 653,275 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.