Aflac Incorporated $AFL Shares Sold by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund cut its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 174,290 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,478 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Aflac were worth $19,219,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Navalign LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac during the second quarter worth about $33,000. Activest Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Aflac by 95.6% during the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Aflac by 80.6% during the fourth quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC now owns 354 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Leonteq Securities AG acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac during the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aflac news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 13,900 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.05, for a total value of $1,613,095.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 51,155,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,936,599,836.75. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 914,456 shares of company stock valued at $104,340,566. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $130.00 target price (up from $125.00) on shares of Aflac in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings cut Aflac from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Aflac from $116.00 to $111.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Aflac from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $112.27.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE AFL opened at $117.03 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $96.95 and a 52-week high of $119.81. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $114.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $111.91. The firm has a market cap of $59.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.61.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.80 by ($0.05). Aflac had a return on equity of 13.88% and a net margin of 25.60%.The company had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.66 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 27.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 27.70%.

About Aflac

Aflac Incorporated (American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus) is a provider of supplemental insurance products designed to help policyholders manage out-of-pocket health care and living expenses. The company underwrites a range of individual and group policies that typically pay cash benefits directly to insureds when covered events occur, enabling greater financial flexibility for medical treatment, hospital stays, critical illness, and related costs. Aflac’s product mix includes supplemental health insurance, life insurance and other specialty coverages intended to complement primary medical plans.

Founded in the mid-20th century and headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, Aflac distributes its products through a combination of employer-sponsored programs, independent brokers and agents, and direct marketing.