Ascent Group LLC Sells 337 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Ascent Group LLC lowered its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 2.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,894 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 337 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $1,889,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Spinnaker Trust grew its holdings in Aflac by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 3,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $405,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Aflac by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 9,783 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,094,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC grew its holdings in Aflac by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 21,775 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,945,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Aflac by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC now owns 4,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $469,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP grew its holdings in Aflac by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 8,337 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $745,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $111.41 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $61.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $111.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $101.63. 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 Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $75.07 and a fifty-two week high of $115.50.

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

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This is an increase from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.12%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AFL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 target price on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.93.

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.