New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Sells 1,300 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board reduced its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 24,006 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,300 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Aflac were worth $2,483,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 75.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 776,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $88,533,000 after acquiring an additional 333,083 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Aflac by 79.7% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,354 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,058,000 after buying an additional 12,131 shares in the last quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Aflac during the third quarter worth about $979,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Aflac by 4.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,202,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $134,395,000 after buying an additional 45,745 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Willis Investment Counsel grew its position in Aflac by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Willis Investment Counsel now owns 273,466 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,287,000 after buying an additional 3,357 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on AFL. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Aflac from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Aflac from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Aflac from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $103.00.

Aflac Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE AFL opened at $103.46 on Friday. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $78.38 and a 1-year high of $115.50. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $104.18 and a 200-day moving average of $107.09. The firm has a market cap of $57.48 billion, a PE ratio of 10.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.99.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.56 earnings per share 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.95 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.58 per share. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.24%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other Aflac news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.40, for a total transaction of $2,558,529.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 222,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,018,701.20. This represents a 10.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.