Element Wealth LLC Has $285,000 Stock Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Element Wealth LLC reduced its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 6.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,755 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 188 shares during the period. Element Wealth LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $285,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its holdings in Aflac by 26.8% during the 4th quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 3,567 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $369,000 after buying an additional 755 shares during the period. Dividend Assets Capital LLC raised its holdings in Aflac by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Dividend Assets Capital LLC now owns 7,920 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $819,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in Aflac by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. now owns 58,598 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,061,000 after buying an additional 1,060 shares during the period. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC now owns 4,008 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $415,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 15,210 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,573,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AFL. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Aflac from $107.00 to $104.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Aflac from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $111.00 price objective on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aflac news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The shares were 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 directly owns 222,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,018,701.20. The trade was a 10.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Trading Down 2.1 %

AFL stock opened at $102.04 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.08. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $104.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $107.29. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $78.62 and a one year high of $115.50. The stock has a market cap of $56.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.99.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 28.76%. Equities analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. This is a boost from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. Aflac’s payout ratio is 24.17%.

Aflac Company 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.